One night, when our now-adult daughter was two years old, she became very uncomfortable and feverish. She was crying and tossing and turning in her bed.

Our family had experienced many healings through Christian Science, and I had complete trust and confidence in our Father-Mother, God, to heal, so I turned quickly to God in prayer. My prayers were both audible and silent declarations of God’s power and presence, and I affirmed that my daughter was innocent, pure, and whole as God’s beloved child. I knew her real, spiritual identity was peaceful, free, and untouched by illness.

It seemed the only way to keep my daughter calm and somewhat comfortable was to hold her while standing and gently rocking her back and forth. As I did this, I prayed persistently with every truth that came to thought. This included hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal, which were a wonderful help in calming both my daughter’s and my own fears. In particular, my daughter insisted that I sing Mary Baker Eddy’s poem “Mother’s Evening Prayer” (Christian Science Hymnal, Nos. 207–212), multiple times.

After several hours, I had reached my limit of standing and rocking. The metaphysical work I’d been doing had been thorough and inspiring, but the fever had not yet broken. I put my daughter in her bed and turned to the Father, God, in silent, listening prayer. When I opened my eyes, I noticed a copy of The Christian Science Monitor newspaper on the desk; the headline story was about the various plights and challenges of the world’s children. The thought came to me that I had not yet included all the children of the world in my prayers. I said out loud, “I can do that,” and I proceeded to lovingly hold all of God’s children in the same deep mental embrace in which I had been holding my daughter.

After praying in this way for a few minutes, I saw that my daughter was peacefully asleep and cool, with no sign of fever or discomfort. She was the vision of pure contentment and tranquility. I was very thankful and in awe of how quickly healing had come right after I had included all of God’s children in my prayers.

Then I thought: “I am really tired. I hope she doesn’t wake up again in the night.” I knew this was a suggestion trying to challenge the healing that had occurred, and right on the heels of this feeling I had a wonderful Christly intuition. It was so easy to tell that the idea came from God, because it was in words that I would not normally use: “This is not a tentative peace; this is God’s peace.” Wow! I was overwhelmed with gratitude by this strong assurance. It was God’s mothering love, “holding and rocking” me, gently assuring me of Her care and presence.

The next morning my daughter was running around, perfectly free and happy.

Mark Strickland
Rancho Santa Margarita, California, US