My expression of gratitude for Christian Science is long overdue. When I was a child, my young sister’s quick healing of polio was the beginning of my mother’s serious interest in Christian Science. Following that healing, she enrolled my sisters and me in a Christian Science Sunday School. God has been my only physician for over six decades, and on the rare occasions when physical problems have arisen, they have been opportunities for spiritual growth—to know God better and myself as His spiritual creation.
I am grateful for healings of an eye infection, recurring colds in winter (which I no longer have), and hip pain, which limited mobility, and also for quick healings of grief when loved ones have passed on. I have also experienced God’s protection during extensive business travels around the world, sometimes in areas and situations that were considered unsafe. But I am even more grateful for the joy and life purpose that Christian Science has brought me.
My desire is to share this wonderful truth with others who need the blessing of knowing God’s love to help them on their road of spiritual progress and healing. I shall always be grateful for taking Christian Science class instruction when I was in college. It laid a foundation for a life mission of service to others.
While I am grateful that the preventive power of prayer in Christian Science has given me relative freedom from physical problems, there are two healings that stand out as milestones in increasing my spiritual understanding. The first healing occurred many years ago, during a time of intensive professional demands, which required frequent and extensive travel. During the stress of this lifestyle, I experienced painful heart palpitations, and at times, extreme weakness. While the healing took some months, it was an opportunity to grow in the realization that my capacity to meet demands came from my oneness with God, the source of my strength, health, and capacity. As Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, “Truth, Life, and Love are the only legitimate and eternal demands on man, and they are spiritual lawgivers, enforcing obedience through divine statutes” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 184).
With deep study of the Bible and Mrs. Eddy’s writings, and the loving support of my husband and my Christian Science teacher, I began to see that as God’s child I was actually expressing God’s love and intelligence, which are without limits. As Job says in the Bible, “He [God] performeth the thing that is appointed for me” (Job 23:14). God is the performer, and man is His performance—with unlimited capacity. This new view brought a great feeling of freedom, energy, health, joy, and dominion, which has stayed with me. Now I am grateful to be fulfilling many demands with as much energy as in my youth. And there has never been a recurrence of the physical problem in the decades since then.
Another, more recent, healing occurred several years ago when I was invited by Christian Scientist friends to join them for a visit to their home in the Caribbean. Their hope was to provide a quiet place for me to prepare a talk on Christian Science. It was a joyful week of spiritual study and prayer and inspired writing. I was also working to overcome some sadness at the recent passing of my dear husband of many years.
On the last day of my visit, I was on an errand in an unfamiliar part of the island. While crossing a street, I was struck by a speeding motorcycle. As I was falling to the pavement, I realized I had a choice to make: To believe I was a vulnerable mortal, or to know that I was spiritual. The thought came so strongly, This is not happening to you, because “accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind …,” as Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 424). I refused to believe I could be harmed, because I was a spiritual idea, untouched by any material circumstance.
I was able to get right up, and to the astonishment of those gathered around, I assured them that I was all right. I walked over to the car where my hostess was waiting, and we spoke together about God’s constant, uninterrupted care for me, and how that precluded any harm. There were no bruises, but some internal pain and shortness of breath. I spent the rest of the day and into the night studying and praying with passages from Science and Health. Finally, I felt confident of complete healing. I packed my suitcase, but was not able to lift it.
During the night I awoke with a clear realization that I was a perfect spiritual idea, not made of matter. I went out to the patio, and looking at the starry sky, I felt such a wonderful sense of God’s love filling my whole being that I was no longer conscious of the pain, and it just melted away. I knew I could reject any negative suggestion of “the carnal mind,” as St. Paul called it (Romans 8:7). It had no power to tempt me into believing I was vulnerable to a harmful blow—either the loss of a beloved husband or an injury by a motorcycle. Nothing could touch my real being as God’s beloved child, or mock the powerful truths I had been studying all that week. Rather, I was defended from harm by the spiritual truths I had studied.
The next morning I was able to easily carry my heavy suitcase up 18 stairs in the airport. And the following day at home I went swimming. Any shortness of breath left very soon after, and I was healed. I also had a joyous sense of freedom from grief about my husband. I felt convinced of his eternal life, and I was deeply grateful for the rich legacy of love from our many happy years. We had shared spiritual inspiration and a growing understanding of God’s love with each other, and I was assured that I was always companioned by God’s angels.
This experience filled me with gratitude for the opportunity to prove the truths we study and love about God’s healing power: that “matter can make no conditions for man …” (Science and Health, p. 120); that “Mind is the master of the corporeal senses …” (p. 393); and that Christian Science does heal. There is a reward for faithfully holding to the Truth, and that is spiritual growth and healing. I am so grateful for Christ Jesus for giving us his example and teachings, and for our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, for giving us the scientific method of divine healing—the “how-to” of Christianity.
Joyce Heard Hawes
New Canaan, Connecticut, US
