SEVERAL YEARS AGO while I was traveling in Greece, I came down with a fever one morning. My thoughts had been stirred up with some difficulties I was having with my traveling companions and the logistics of the trip. The weather was also unseasonably cold, and we were staying in an unheated villa with inadequate clothing. After my friends left for the day, I calmed my thought by focusing on the warmth of God's love for me and for my friends. I contemplated the harmony of everything and everyone under the control of divine Soul, God. Sitting quietly for several hours with these spiritual impressions, I felt embraced in their warmth and harmony. By evening, the fever had disappeared.
However, I had lost all hearing in one ear. When I returned home a couple of days later, I called a Christian Science practitioner for treatment through prayer. She assured me that in reality my hearing was intact because hearing is actually a spiritual quality, not a physical sense. Therefore, spiritually, I was hearing beautifully. I felt the truth of this statement as many inspiring ideas came to my thinking—some to replace false negative notions I had found myself entertaining about my life and identity. Nevertheless, I kept feeling that something needed to be removed from my ear.
Then I read a testimony in the Christian Science Sentinel about a young girl who had stepped on some broken glass. A shard lodged in her foot, causing constant discomfort. The girl's mother declared in her prayer that if something needed to be removed from her daughter's foot, the girl didn't need to suffer in the process. The pain stopped, and shortly thereafter, the glass gently came to the surface and was brushed away. This testimony had a profound effect on me.
