A special Christmas gift

You probably got some great gifts for Christmas. This year Chase got a really special gift.

One day close to Christmas, Chase felt sick, and his stomach hurt a lot. Chase had been healed before by praying, so he knew that God would heal him now. He had a friend who believed God could heal, too, so he called him on the telephone and asked him to pray for him.

Chase and his mom sat in bed and read the Bible. This helped them both to think about God. They knew that God loved Chase so much, because he was His child. Chase said, "I had been lying on the bed and thinking how bad my stomach hurt, but there was so much about joy in the Bible, it made me feel happy and not miserable."

They also read from a book called "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. It helped them see that God would always take care of Chase, and wouldn't make anything to hurt him or make him sick. So since God didn't make this stomach pain, it couldn't really be powerful. It couldn't even be true, because God is the whole Truth. Chase and Mom knew that's what God would show them when they prayed.

Then they listened to a tape of other kids telling how praying to God had healed them. (Chase's mom said that the tape helped her, too. She knew that because God had helped all those other kids, He would surely help Chase. She knew he'd be fine.)

Chase said the kids on the tape gave him ideas about how to pray. One idea was, "I don't have to stay with this pain. I can go with God." Chase knew he could trust God to heal him. He knew that what his stomach was telling him wasn't true because it wasn't what God would be doing to him. God loved him and wouldn't let anything hurt him.

Chase knows God, because he has learned how to pray and because he has felt God help him many times. He said, "I've had plenty of healings." He knows he can always trust God to take care of him. Chase memorized something from the Bible. It goes like this: "The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore" (Ps. 121:7, 8).

Preserve means to keep safe from anything that might hurt us. The part about going out and coming in says that God is with us and that we're with God, no matter where we are or what we're doing.

Chase said, "I love those verses. I knew I was safe from evil, and this helped me. After I thought about the verses for a while, I felt fine. I thought about how I would be healed and I was grateful. And then I was healed."

Later that afternoon Chase and his mom went shopping. And the next day he had fun playing in a soccer game.

Chase was glad to be healed, so he drew a picture and sent it to the friend who had prayed for him. The picture shows a pretty Christmas package and says, "Health is my Christmas gift from GOD!" Chase talked about his picture and said, "It was almost Christmas and so I thought about God's healing me being like a gift from God. God gives us so many gifts - not just at Christmas, of course."

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Publishing Society