Through the years I’ve had many healings as a result of prayer. Some were quick healings, and others required the spiritual discipline of persistent prayer over a period of time.
Just a few months ago, I experienced a quick healing. On a train from Boston to New York last winter, I was chatting with my seatmate and brand-new friend as we enjoyed the scenery along the journey through a beautiful snowstorm in Connecticut.
During the trip my seatmate received a phone call and became involved in a conversation, so I reached down for my bag lunch, which I had placed under my feet. As I sat up, the tray table on the seat in front of me dropped and hit me hard on the bridge of my nose. My friend heard the impact and asked if I was all right. Not wanting to alarm her, I assured her that I was fine. But my vision had gone dark with the impact, and I was in considerable pain.
I closed my eyes and immediately knew that the angels I needed—God’s holy thoughts, which help and heal—were present. I’ve learned that these angels come to us in times of need, reassuring us of God’s love and all-power. And at that moment, His angels came as a gentle reminder that I was wholly spiritual, an idea of God, which cannot be impacted by matter. It also occurred to me that God, divine Mind, created all; therefore, everything that exists is a useful, harmless spiritual idea, and one idea of God cannot possibly harm another idea of God. Therefore, nothing existed that could harm me. This was a comforting thought that made me smile and dissolved all pain and fear.
When I opened my eyes, I could see, but all I could see was my nose, which appeared to have swollen to twice its normal size. In fact, I couldn’t see around it. So I closed my eyes again, and this was what I heard myself think: I am not going to let my face be used as a canvas upon which can be painted the suggestions of the carnal mind—in this case, that there had been a harmful impact, and that a spiritual idea could have been harmed.
This was a new idea to me, and I stayed with it for quite a while, thinking about it in relation not only to my face but to other aspects of my experience. For example: I am not going to allow my home to be a canvas upon which can be painted mortal mind’s ridiculous suggestions of lack, limitation, and inharmony; I will not allow my church to be a canvas upon which can be painted mortal mind’s suggestions of fear, blame, disagreement, stagnation, or conflicting personalities; I will not allow my country to be a canvas upon which can be painted mortal mind’s suggestions of division, irreconcilable differences, and so on.
I considered some simple laws of God that supported and upheld these convictions, including the fact that “God is love” (I John 4:8), and, because this divine Love fills all space, the picture of any unloving, hurtful presence or power must give way to the understanding of His perfect nature. Christ Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).
When I opened my eyes again, I could see normally. My seatmate was still on the phone, but when she finished and turned to talk with me again, she never said anything about my nose or face.
Approximately two hours after the incident I arrived at Penn Station in New York City, where my stepdaughter and a friend met me. They never said a word about my face. (The next day, when I told my stepdaughter about the experience, she said there had not been any indication that something had happened.) I never looked at my face until I washed it late that night, at which time there was no sign of swelling, or any other reminder of the incident. The healing was complete.
I am grateful for this recent example in my experience of the effectiveness of turning to God for help in meeting an immediate need. And I’m grateful for the blessings it has brought in terms of the lesson learned, which I’ve been able to apply in a number of circumstances.
