I was baking cookies for my soon-to-arrive guests, but my mind was elsewhere—on a relationship that was troubling me. Distracted, I removed a tray of cookies from the oven without using an oven mitt. The pain was intense, and I immediately called a Christian Science practitioner to pray for me. Her response to my story was a firm, "The flame shall not hurt thee."
These words are from a hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal (No. 123), which reads in part:
When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.
