Prayer - not guilt - heals
by Deborah Packer
One day as Jesus was passing by a man who was blind from his birth, his disciples asked him whether the man was born blind because of his own sin or because of his parents' sin. Jesus answered: "Neither hath tthis man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him" (John 9:3). Then Jesus healed the man of his blindness.
What this Bible passage means to me is that we are not punished for past errors. Even in situations where we initially allowed errors of thinking to go unchallenged, we can still correct our thought - and when we do, we can expect to be free of any bad effects. This rule is in fact the third tenet of Christian Science: "We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts" (Mary Baker Eddy, Science & Health,p.497).
An experience that we had in our family some years ago demonstrates this truth in an immediate, certain and undeniable way. At the time, I was teaching in a primary school some 40 minutes' drive from my home, and my son, who was just a year old, was being cared for by a baby sitter, who lived near my work. One day while I was on a field trip to a park with my students, a toddler rushed up the path toward me with her father in hot pursuit. Her happiness made me smile, but as she came closer I realized she had some serious injuries to her face. It so took me by surprise that for a moment I stared. Her father, noticing my attention, offered an explanation: She had fallen down a flight of stone stairs, landing on her face. He added that she had spent more than a week in hospital, and now, three weeks later, she was almost better.
I was so busy tending to my students that day that I didn't give the incident with the toddler any more thought, but the image of her face had impressed me and would sometimes come to mind.
About ten days later after this incident, I was at school giving the morning lessons when I received an urgent message to come to the office. The baby sitter had called to say that my son had had an accident. This time I was more alert, and straightaway I claimed that there are no accidents because God, divine Principle, is always in charge.
Within five minutes I was a the baby sitter's. As I pulled up in the car, she ran out of the front door carrying my son. He was limp in her arms. A glance told me that he had scraped one side of his face; there was much swelling, and he had a large gash in his head.
Just for one moment I was tempted to be shocked, but I knew not to give in to alarm or distress. I knew that the image before me was not God's child, His perfect image; therefore, I would not give it credence. The baby sitter was distraught and explained that my son had tripped on the top step in the garden and fallen head-first onto the concrete below, scraping his face on the steps as he fell. Instantly I saw that this was a repetition of the story the young father in the park had told me.
I scooped up my son in my arms, reassuring the baby sitter that he was all right. While I settled my son into his car seat, I talked gently to him and ensured that he was comfortable and secure. He began to respond, and showed no signs of distress. I headed for home, knowing that he was safe and in God's loving care.
The 40-minute drive allowed me plenty of quiet praying time. Mrs. Eddy directs us in Science & Health: "Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously" (p.392). I realized that in a number of ways I had not "stood porter" over my thought. On several occasions in the weeks before, I had admitted the possibility of accidents - this situation with the young girl being the most recent. On other occasions, in little ways, I had allowed that chance, good and bad, could play a part in my life On page 234 of Science & Health, Eddy writes: "Sin and disease must be thought before they can be manifested. You must control evil thoughts in the first instance, or they will control you in the second." I knew this also held true for the thought of accidents.
The drive home was an awakening time for me. It felt as though I was experiencing a huge mental clean-up. At one point I was tempted to feel guilty for not having been more alert in protecting my though, but I dismissed this feeling, I knew that God never sends guilt, that He knows only the perfect man, in whom is no sin or guilt. I also recognized that these thoughts of chance and accident were not my thoughts. I refused to own them.They were evil suggestions for me to accept or reject. I strongly rejected them, and therefore they had no claim me.
Christian Science teaches that God is Principle and Love. Therefore, I knew that God's care, His love and protection for my son, was a certainty, a law. Any evidence to the contrary was to be denied as false evidence, illusion. I had read this idea many times, but as I drove home that day, I saw it beyond doubt; it became to me an undeniable truth.
While I was engrossed in my prayer, I could hear my son making happy noises in the back seat, so I knew he was OK. When we pulled up in the driveway at home, I unbuckled him and carried him inside. He was awake and joyful, and he ran out to play with our dog.
Later that evening, as I was giving my son his bath, I was scrubbing his hair quite vigorously while we talked and laughed. I noticed that it was glued together with red-brown sticky stuff, and I said to him, puzzled, "What have you got in your hair?" Suddenly I remembered the events of the morning. This was the first time I had thought of the fall since I put him in the car. Instinctively now as I washed his hair, I looked to see where this dried blood might have come from, but no cut, no injury remained. I then looked at his face. He had one tiny scab on the side of his nose; the rest of his skin was perfect - not a single mark!
Needless to say, the baby sitter was more than a little surprised when we arrived the next morning and she saw that my son was so untourched by the incident. The scab on the nose was gone in a day or two.
Often I think back on this incident to examine what I learned that day. I know that focusing on God was important. In the Bible, Isaiah instructs us: "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (45:22). Eddy advises: "We should prevent the images of disease from taking form in thought, and we should efface the outlines of disease already formulated in the minds of mortals" (Science & HealthI, pp. 174-175). Later in the book, she explains:"To cure a bodily ailment, every broken moral law should be taken into account and the error be rebuked. Fear, which is an element of all disease, must be cast out to readjust the balance for God" (p.392).
Although I was brought up in Christian Science, I was not a truly diligent Christian Scientist at the time of this incident. I loved its teachings, but I often let the human busyness of life crowd out time for spiritual study. Yet, on this day when I turned to God whole-heartedly, He gave me the thoughts I needed to be master of the situation. This has given me great confidence that past mistakes can have no hold over us once we're ready to correct them and move forward.
This experience has also given me a clearer understanding of my son's true identity as God's chold, and this understanding has helped me parent more wisely and with less fear. My son has grown up with a clear awareness of his spiritual identity and has had many beautiful healings through his own understanding of God. I continue to be unspeakably grateful for this demonstration of God's power and for His ever-present guidance.
Deborah Packer lives in Canberra, Australia
This article appears in the Christian Science Sentinel June18,2012
