Almost 20 years ago, while I was helping a friend box up items, a sharp blade slipped and deeply sliced one of my fingers to the bone. Faced with what to do next, I took a “grand pause,” as we say in music. My friend, a fellow Christian Scientist, and I immediately turned to God in prayer. I was struggling with the pain and felt myself sinking to the floor. Immediately my friend declared firmly, “God is here—right here!” In a few minutes, the pain lessened enough so that I could walk around. We bandaged the wound and continued praying.
Christ Jesus instructed, “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:6). This was what I was doing as I listened to God.
I had been expressing anger at the time of the accident, and it became clear that I needed to settle my thoughts. I needed to be receptive to spiritually uplifting thoughts from God and to refrain from accepting negativity as a part of me. By extension, that meant the physical wound, which was not a product of God’s goodness and love, wasn’t part of the package either.
