“The picture had gone from grim to healed (and glorious) in less than a week."

I got a call late one night from a woman I have worked for in the past.  She is a dedicated student of Christian Science who lives in a different part of the country.  We have never met. She called to say that her pregnant daughter-in-law who is not a Christian Scientist had been taken to the hospital and diagnosed with spinal meningitis.  The prognosis was grim, for both her and her unborn child.  The mother-in-law had been asked to go stay with her son and daughter-in-law’s other children — a one year old and a two year old - as the son was needed at the hospital. The mother-in-law called me to pray for her and with her.  She didn’t have any of her books with her, her son is not a practicing Christian Scientist at the moment — and she was frightened by the sense of looming doom.

As I prayed it seemed obvious that none of this was God’s story and that His Story was the only one that mattered.  Because she didn’t have any books with her I sent her a text message with the following from Science and Health, by Mary Baker Eddy:

“When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious — as Life eternally is — can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not.  Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence discord with harmony.” (S&H 495:14)

The next morning the prognosis was that the baby was alright, but the mother was not going to make it.  We chose to stay with the fact that the baby was alright and always had been and always would be and so was the daughter-in-law.  I read the passage from “Choose Ye” on page 4 to the mother-in-law, the part about Christian Science subserving. (My 4:14)  We kept on working.  Later in the day she called for more support and I told her she should take a piece of paper and write down every statement she could think of from the Bible, Science and Health, the hymnal, Mrs. Eddy’s other writings.  She could start with “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.” (S&H 494:10-11)  She liked that idea. She filled several sheets of paper!

The next morning her son walked into intensive care and found his wife awake and sitting up, and smiling.  The nurse on duty said it was unbelievable.  That afternoon things were going so well that the son came home to check on his other two children, change his clothes, etc. While there he took out his guitar and sang a song for his mom (I think it was a hymn).

Two days later, while the mother-in-law was feeding the children lunch she looked up and there was her son and her daughter-in-law, home from the hospital.  The picture had gone from grim to healed (and glorious) in less than a week.

I still don’t know the daughter-in-law’s name!  I wasn’t working for her after all.  I was simply bearing witness to the Truth that heals.  That’s what all of us are doing for everyone seemingly at risk in Africa (Nigeria, Sierra Leone, wherever)  We don’t need to know the names of the ones we are praying for.  We just have to know the Truth.