A childhood healing

One of my earliest childhood memories involves a truly remarkable healing I had through prayer. As a young boy, I was excited one day to receive a gift from my parents. It was a toy tool kit that included a child-sized hammer, a screwdriver, and a small saw. The only problem with this tool kit was that it would not meet today’s safety standards by a long shot.

My mother and I found out the hard way that this gift had safety issues after I tried using the saw. Besides effectively cutting a desired object, it also effectively cut my finger.

I do not recall crying or feeling fear. I do remember showing the cut to my mother, who calmly wrapped it with a towel. She then sat me in her lap, and we said aloud what I think of as a prayer from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, called “the scientific statement of being”:

“There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual” (p. 468).

After repeating this statement and praying together for a time, we removed the towel. There was still blood on the towel, but no sign of the cut. It had completely disappeared.

I still turn to this statement today, and pray it with great conviction because I remember the power that is in its meaning. Throughout my childhood and adulthood, I experienced many healings of colds, flu, sprains, and cuts through Christian Science. It has also proved effective in healing family members of such ailments later in life.

The strength of this idea has not diminished over the years. Being is spiritual, not material, and this childhood healing showed me how we can demonstrate the power of Spirit over matter.

Todd Wittenberg
Homewood, Illinois, US

Our son was about five years old, and our family was new to the practice of Christian Science, when walking out of the Sunday School one morning, he proclaimed, “Man is spiritual.” He wasn’t just repeating words that someone else had said, and I really took note because I felt his understanding in a very tangible way.

A few weeks later he was on the back porch trying to saw a leg off an old table with a tool kit that had been marketed for children. All at once he came into the kitchen with a finger bleeding profusely. I prayed immediately and asked God for help to know what to do. It came to me to wrap the finger in a towel, and we proceeded to the living room. On the way I noticed a small plaque on his dresser with “the scientific statement of being” printed on it. I grabbed it, and while we sat in the living room, we talked and agreed that we should consider the words on this plaque carefully and really try to understand what these words meant. (I was so new to Christian Science, I had not yet memorized this statement.) So we thought and read it aloud five or six times, and when we felt comfortable, we took the towel away from Todd’s finger.

There wasn’t even a trace of a cut on the finger. It was as if the whole thing had never happened.

This healing was so quick and really amazing. It continues to be an inspiration to me. Whenever I have to look at something disturbing, I know it isn’t real because “man is not material; he is spiritual.” I am so very grateful that Christian Science heals, and that it was presented to me when our children were growing up.

Suzann Wittenberg
Round Lake, Illinois, US