One day our two younger sons were out playing when the elder boy was hurt. I went to the child and put my arms around him. Something had entered his eye, and he was holding his hands over the eye. I wondered, "What should I do?" Immediately I thought of the word "self-immolation." Mrs. Eddy uses this on page 1 of Science and Health: "Prayer, watching, and working, combined with self-immolation, are God's gracious means for accomplishing whatever has been successfully done for the Christianization and health of mankind." During the course of a year I'd thought a lot about this word, and right then I saw a need to let go of a mortal self. God is All, and He was in charge, not a mortal self. He was right there with us—loving, protecting, and caring for us.
As the boy cleaned up a bit, we didn't look at the eye or try to do anything with it. We had no idea what had entered it, nor did we concern ourselves with this.
Instead, we sat down in the family room and declared aloud the truth of God and man made in His likeness. We talked about God's supreme control. God's law is the only law, and it annuls any so-called material laws; His law is perfect and sure, His word "sharper than any twoedged sword" (Heb. 4:12). This concept of God's law was so powerful and absorbing that truths along these lines kept occurring to me to share with our son. One of this boy's favorite hymns is "Mother's Evening Prayer" with words by Mrs. Eddy (No. 207, Christian Science Hymnal). It begins, "O gentle presence, peace and joy and power." We felt God's "gentle presence," His "peace and joy and power" right with us and all around us. I saw that this child truly belonged to God, who was his Father-Mother, tenderly sustaining him.
