I was preparing a cup of tea in my house at boarding school when I accidentally spilled boiling water all over my hand. I instinctively prayed, because ever since I was little, I had trusted prayer for physical relief. In this instance, praying meant remembering who I really was—spiritually. That God's creation cannot suffer because, God, as divine Love, wouldn't allow his creation to experience pain. And that since God is Spirit, He didn't create matter, and it therefore had no power to hurt me.
I didn't feel any pain at first. But as the morning went on, my hand began to throb, so I ran it under cold water. This aided momentarily, but I soon needed an ice pack. By lunch time I was attending classes with my hand in a jug of ice water.
I asked the school secretary to call my mother to come and fetch me. By then I was doubled over in pain. All that came to mind was, "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter," as the scientific statement of being from Science and Health begins. Mary Baker Eddy's words conclude with the idea that "man is not material; he is spiritual" (p. 468). These words were my prayer of affirmation—an affirmation of the spiritual fact that the only real way to find physical comfort was to see myself not as material, but as spiritual.
