My husband and I were working together with my dad on a garden project, in connection with a summer-house we were building. A special sense of family unity inspired me—we were completing this feature of the project with a gift left by my dear grandmother, who had introduced our family to Christian Science.

I was filled with appreciation for all that Christian Science meant to me, and particularly conscious of some specific spiritual ideas I had been holding dear. I'd been praying to know that God is divine Life, and that His law is the law of health and harmony for all mankind.

When the building project was almost complete, I slipped on the early morning dew. To save my fall, I reached out and grabbed a sheet of freshly-cut roofing iron, nearly severing one finger. Equally instinctively, I reached for the meaning of the truth I knew so well from Science and Health: "Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony" (p. 424). I was very aware that I needed to be getting ready for an interview at our daughter's preschool. Another passage came to me, "Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized" (p. 167). "Radical reliance" is what I had been practising in my prayer. Right then I felt humbly grateful for this opportunity to prove God's presence, power, and control.

My husband placed the finger together and bandaged it.

Mary Baker Eddy's words "enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty" reassured me in this reliance. The full statement, also from Science and Health, says, "Hold perpetually this thought,—that it is the spiritual idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, overlying, and encompassing all true being" (p. 496).

That thought that there is no pain in God, divine Truth, and therefore no truth in pain, had helped me during the deliveries of our four children (see Science and Health, p. 113). The understanding of these words helped me keep my thoughts clear and receptive. Within minutes the pain and bleeding ceased, although I was unable to move my finger. During the next few days, words from Hymn 350 helped me to have confidence in God's care and control:

On the third day there was no longer any need for bandaging. The finger had completely reknitted, and had regained normal movement.

I feel very grateful for this healing, and for having been brought up in a family where Christian Science was a cherished way of life. It is truly the greatest gift parents can give children, for it protects and supports in every situation, and healing is scientifically certain.

Pamela Joy McAuliffe Stanhope, Queensland, Australia