When our son was about three years old, he had a very high fever and was so miserable that he was crying constantly. My husband was taking care of our baby daughter and also praying for our son while I stayed in the room with the little boy. Hearing the happy shouts of neighbors' children playing outside, I wished our son could be with them, well and active as usual. But then I began to think that this was an opportunity to know God better, so I settled down to pray and to get a better understanding of our relationship to God. This relationship is described in the book of Genesis: "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Gen. 1:27). I knew that my understanding of and trust in a loving, Father-Mother God would help me to overcome my fear.
I began to pray by thinking about each of the seven major synonyms for God in Science and Health (see p. 465). I attached to each synonym what I felt "fit" those names for God. When I thought of God as Life, for example, I reasoned that our son reflected health, harmonious action, proper functioning, and perfection as God's child. I thought of his reflection of God as Truth and realized that he manifested honesty, trustfulness, trustworthiness, and enlightenment. Love, another synonym, enabled me to understand that this child expressed lovingkindness, affection, goodness, and tenderness. God as Soul showed me how our child reflected purity, inspiration, serenity, and peace. God as Spirit, gave me some understanding of his spiritual substance, strength, stability, and steadfastness. Our child exhibited intelligence, understanding, ability, and receptivity as an expression of the one infinite Mind. God as Principle revealed balance, control, order, and, yes—even at three years—his authority over disease.
I don't know how long I prayed. But I remember finally yielding to God and saying, "OK, God. He's your child. I know you're taking care of him." Or maybe I just said, "Take care of him!" Trusting my son's divine Parent—God—I let go of what I thought was my responsibility for his well-being. The child fell into a normal sleep and awoke completely healed.
