Wrist injury healed

Ross Newkirk

One day about four years ago, I was downstairs in my shop drilling a hole through a large piece of steel. This was part of a project that I was working on to make sure the work environment was safe for my employees. I was using a power drill armed with a hardened steel drill bit, holding the handle of the piece I was working on in my left hand and the drill in my right. All of a sudden the drill bit snapped in half and drilled deep into my left wrist.

I dropped the drill and clenched my wrist to my chest. I ran upstairs where my mom was working (she and my dad were both employees of the business at that time) and lay down on the floor. My mom called my dad, who was at our house, only a few minutes away, and he said he would be there right away.

I kept pressure on the wrist to keep the bleeding under control and asked my mom if she would call a Christian Science practitioner I knew well. She dialed his number and held the phone to my ear. The practitioner’s first response was one of humor, which was exactly what I needed at that moment to break the fear. He said, “Ross, what have you done this time!?” I laughed, as he made it sound like I was always getting into trouble, even though that was not the case. He explained to me how I had not fallen out of God’s care for a moment. The truths that he shared were so calming that I was instantly brought back to the spiritual reality that I was perfect and intact. He shared some wonderful passages with me that I could think and pray with, and although I do not recall the specific citations now, I remember feeling God’s love from hearing them and holding to them. The practitioner’s demeanor was so calm, and it was clear that he was unimpressed. He said he would immediately begin praying with me.

My dad arrived a few minutes later and helped clean out and bandage the wound. I shared some of the truths I’d just heard with my parents. And I kept holding to those truths and focusing on them. My mom, dad, and I started talking about how I was God’s complete child, and I remember thinking about how comforting it felt to have such wonderful support. It was clear that God’s love was present all around me.

It was late in the day, so we decided to go home. As we drove, I noticed that my hand was not a normal color, and I was losing feeling in my fingers. I talked with the practitioner again after getting home, and he assured me that despite what the material picture wanted to try to tell us, I was in fact perfect. Perfect—just how God had made me! We continued to pray, endeavoring to see through the illusion of injury and hold to the idea of my being as changeless. Nothing had changed about my spiritual identity, and I didn’t have to believe that I could be anything less than whole and complete. This was an opportunity to become
closer to God.

As we continued praying, within just a couple of hours I went from wearing a big bandage and gauze to wearing only one small bandage. And within eight hours I did not have to wear a bandage at all, as the wound had closed up. My hand returned to its normal color, and I had feeling in my fingers and could move them freely. I was back to work the very next day. The only aftereffect of the incident was some scar sensitivity on my wrist, and that too was quickly and permanently healed through prayer.

In the front of Science and Health there is a quote from the book of John in the Bible: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (8:32). This is exactly what happened. The truth was that my perfection was changeless. No drill bit could change my perfection. I love how it says elsewhere in Science and Health, “Trials are proofs of God’s care” (p. 66). The accident that happened that day was certainly not remembered as an accident, but rather as a time when I had the opportunity to rely on my Father-Mother God.

Ross Newkirk
Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, US

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