Child healed of delayed development

Originally published in El Heraldo de la Christian Science

Doris Agudelo

My son is now nine years old. Everyone who knows him, including the teachers in Sunday School, say very good things about him, and they make me feel good, even proud. In school he has been standing out in every subject. What few people know is that this success is due to the practice of Christian Science and to reading Science and Health.

I'd been through many heartbreaks from the time Diego was a baby. When he was only two years old, the medical diagnosis was that he was behind in almost every area of physical development, and that there was also a delay in his mental development. My anguish grew when I noticed that his psychomotor and associative skills were much poorer than those of other children his age. One day someone even told me that my child had the look of someone suffering from starvation or leukemia because of his small size. I don't remember how much I cried over that comment.

By the time Diego was in kindergarten, I had already been avidly reading Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health and Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896. But as the medical diagnoses about Diego became more and more disheartening, I called a Christian Science practitioner for treatment through prayer. I remember she told me that the identity of my child was not that of blood and bones; that he was the image of perfect Life, who is God (see Science and Health, pp. 475–477). But the thing she said that struck me most was that infinite Life is the source of all existence, and that every man, woman, and child originate in Life, with God, and this certainly included Diego. This meant that neither my son, nor anyone, was the result of material organization.

That new concept of motherhood changed my thought completely. I saw that God was his Parent. This comforted me and gave me the courage to pray in order to overcome the stifling feelings of powerlessness and self-pity I had. As a result of these prayers, I also began to understand that as a child of God, Diego didn't have anything to do with what seemed to be a defective material identity. I could understand that my son was made in God's likeness, and he always has been. I came to see that maternal love is not just human compassion, but the ability to recognize all the good and beautiful things that God has made.

This way of appreciating my son's spiritual identity changed him completely. Today, Diego is about an inch and a half taller than the average boy his age, and he has a healthy, rosy complexion and a sturdy frame. I'm also happy to say that last year was Diego's best year at school. He won a medal of honor for academic achievement, and was rewarded with a large reduction in school fees for this year.

I am very grateful to God.

Doris Agudelo
Bogota, Colombia

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