Testimonies of Healing

One day just before dinner, when I went outside on our deck, a wasp stung me on my hand. The pain was intense, but the first thing that came to me was to affirm that we were both innocent.

Several years ago, I awoke one morning feeling very strange and realized that one side of my body was paralyzed. However, I knew from past experience that I could be healed through prayer.

In September of 2001, when I had recently retired from teaching, the branch Church of Christ, Scientist, where I was a member was holding elections for First and Second Reader. While church members are free to withdraw their names from the eligibility list, it had always been my practice to keep my name on the list for Readers and other church officers.

When I walked across the street from my house into a Church of Christ, Scientist, for the first time, I was greeted with love. It was love that kept me coming back, because I had felt broken and unlovable up until that point.

A student once asked his astronomy professor, “If I go to the end of the universe and poke my finger through, won’t the universe keep going?” His question implied he was thinking of the universe as a physically spatial entity, and the professor replied that the student needed to exchange his concept of a material universe, which would be inherently limited, for a mathematical model that represented ideas. Like the student, I found myself making the same mistake while trying to resolve an increasingly restrictive and unpleasant business conflict with a couple.

As a child attending a Christian Science Sunday School, I learned that God is a reliable source of help, but I never knew that the hymns we sang would be prayers when I needed them. I realized this when my dad signed me up for flying lessons the summer that I turned sixteen.

I am most grateful for protection during the coronavirus pandemic. In late February 2020, my wife and I visited Venice for carnival.

Late last summer during an extremely hot and humid afternoon, I noticed that my front garden needed to be watered. In spite of encouragements in news reports to stay indoors, and thinking only about the plants, I proceeded outside to water them.

Company was visiting. It was summer, and we went cherry-picking.

I began playing volleyball year-round starting in middle school. I took much joy in the sport, partly because I realized that it was a way to express God-given qualities.