I am always grateful to be healed or to witness a healing through Christian Science. But my love for this Science grows even deeper when a healing occurs that simply cannot be explained away through conventional wisdom or science. Over the past couple of years, I’ve experienced two of these healings.

The first occurred after I pulled something in my lower back. Standing in a crowded lobby at my daughter’s ballet class, I bent over to pick up my two-year-old, and on the way up I felt a strange sensation in my back. I didn’t think much of it until I woke up the next morning in pain. The pain increased over the day, and when I awoke the following morning, I could find comfort only by lying completely still for a few minutes. It seemed that any movement, even standing, was painful—not a good situation for a mother of two young kids! Additionally, my husband was about to leave for an overnight work trip, which meant I would have to take care of our two young girls alone.

A few months prior, through prayer and study, I had reached a deeper understanding of myself as a completely immortal and spiritual being, governed by God. I knew I needed to claim these truths in this situation despite the fact that the pain in my back was screaming at me to believe the opposite. I also had to handle the fear that the pain in my back could be either chronic or permanent. I called a Christian Science practitioner for prayerful help.

The next morning when my girls were at school, I lay down and began praying to overcome my fear. I became discouraged and felt that the constant pain was too aggressive. In other words, it felt as if it would be too difficult to dismiss the persistent suggestions of pain. I decided to listen to a Sentinel podcast. Strangely enough, at one point, the podcast I had been listening to skipped to another one. 

At that point the person being interviewed said simply, “See yourself as God sees you.” At that moment, I knew that whenever I felt pain, I would instead acknowledge and see myself only the way God sees me: fully spiritual, perfect, whole, and complete. I felt I was in a battle, standing my ground for what I knew was right.

About half an hour later I was at my girls’ school to pick them up, and a few hours after that, the pain in my back had completely disappeared. Although it took persistence, over those few hours I had consistently put down any suggestion that I had a mortal body that was in pain. When my husband returned from his trip and saw me the next morning, I could tell he recognized the enormous change that had occurred. I was completely free of pain.

This healing has certainly been a milestone for me. It really highlighted the persistent work needed to reject an erroneous suggestion about my identity. It also proved just how quick and effective the application of Christian Science can be. 

The second healing occurred more recently; however, it was more than 15 years in the making.

Ever since I was a sophomore in high school, I’ve been a runner. I love getting outside and being active, and, on average, I’ve been running at least three times a week for more than 20 years.

Roughly 15 years ago, a wart began to form on the bottom of one of my feet. I assumed it was a callus and didn’t think anything of it. However, five years later, the original wart had multiplied into at least eight others. The warts caused irritation and pain if I stepped on them incorrectly, but they did not hinder my running. So again, I didn’t think much of them other than as a nuisance. A few times I tried to scrub them off, but to no avail. And a few times I tried to pray about them, but with no success. I also thought they had been there for so long and really didn’t get in the way that much—what’s the big deal?

However, over these years, my spiritual study had grown deeper, and I began to recognize that accepting even a small suggestion that my being could be abnormal or irritated, or that something could cause me pain, was buying into the false belief that I am a mortal. If I just gave in and accepted this small imperfection, why wouldn’t I also accept larger imperfections?

From that basis, every time my foot would come to thought, I would reject the idea that there could be something attached to me (the warts) that was an exception to my spiritually based perfection. During this time I didn’t look at the bottom of this foot. I did this not out of willfulness, but because I knew this condition was nothing to be impressed by and that my “mortal” foot couldn’t provide any correct information about my immortal self.

A few weeks passed, and I began to notice that I had not felt pain or irritation in that foot. I still didn’t look at it, since I didn’t need evidence to support my conviction that from a spiritual standpoint my foot was perfect.

Then one day, I was sitting in such a way that I ended up glancing at the bottom of my foot. I noticed that all the warts but one were completely gone! I can’t tell you the gratitude I felt at that moment. 

A few days later, that wart had disappeared as well. A condition that had gone on for many years had vanished! I hadn’t gotten new shoes or socks, or treated the skin on this foot any differently. To me there was really no explanation for this healing other than the Christ at work in thought.

Healings such as these form a sure foundation on which to base future proof of God’s perfection and care. Now when I am confronted with a challenge that seems insurmountable, I just think of the divine Principle that was at work in those two healings, and recognize my and others’ spiritual selfhood, completely governed by God.

Kerry Flatley
Acton, Massachusetts, US