A ‘sweet’ sense of God’s healing power
After a fish bone lodged in her throat, today’s contributor found that God’s help is always right at hand.
The use of slang words has become so prevalent in our social media-driven society that online slang dictionaries exist to define popular terms. Since I hear the term “sweet” being used frequently in different contexts, I looked it up and found one meaning to be “pleasing to the mind or feelings.”
I like the fact that this meaning communicates a sense of joy for good experienced. For me, my most treasured experiences include healings I’ve had through the study and practice of Christian Science. So I’ve started to refer to some of my most memorable healings as “sweet.”
One of these healings took place while I was visiting my parents in the Caribbean. We were enjoying a delicious fish dinner fried “island style,” which means that smaller fish are fried whole. The bones in the fish are to be artfully removed while it is being eaten. I must have forgotten the art of eating this delicacy, because suddenly a bone lodged in my throat. Efforts to dislodge it were in vain, and I began to feel afraid.
In my distress, I reached out to God in prayer and remembered this promise from the Bible: “The word of God is quick, and powerful” (Hebrews 4:12). My dad offered to drive me to the hospital, but based on many experiences of healing I’d previously had through prayer, I realized that I didn’t have to wait for help – God’s help was right at hand. So I excused myself, went into my bedroom, and contacted a Christian Science practitioner. (A practitioner is someone whose ministry is dedicated to healing through prayer based on his or her understanding of God’s transforming love and power.)
Lovingly, and with a conviction that came from the depths of her spiritual understanding, the practitioner shared a statement from “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, that said: “God is everywhere, and nothing apart from Him is present or has power” (p. 473). This idea of God’s nature as the one infinite all-power, filling all space, buoyed and strengthened me. I then acknowledged with my whole being that because God, divine Love, is present everywhere, there is no room for anything but good. Even though that didn’t seem to be the case right then, the spiritual reality of God’s present goodness remained unchanged.
Holding steadfastly to these ideas made me feel less fearful, so I propped myself up on the bed and continued to pray. Within a few minutes, I could feel the bone moving gently down my throat – and that was the end of the problem. When I returned to the dining area with a big smile to join my parents, they rejoiced with me, and we praised God for His goodness. On more than one occasion afterward, my parents, who were not Christian Scientists, commented on this healing.
This has been a landmark healing for me, primarily because I witnessed the immediacy of God’s power to heal, but also because of how gently and peacefully the situation was resolved. It has left me with a sweet sense of God’s power as a holy, active presence. The prophet Jeremiah wrote: “Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?... Do not I fill heaven and earth?” (Jeremiah 23:23, 24).
Through my study and practice of Christian Science, I’ve found that viewing God as infinite Spirit, ever-present good, and all of us as His image and likeness, as the Bible teaches, naturally elevates our concept of ourselves and each other beyond a material and mortal viewpoint and reveals our true identity as God’s spiritual offspring. Each of us, then, inherently reflects and expresses the spiritual qualities that Love imparts: peace, joy, holiness, gentleness, etc. These building blocks of our spiritual identity are permanent and cannot be destroyed, but they are brought to our attention more vividly through prayer. That’s why the memory of this experience is so “sweet” and why I rejoice in these beautiful words of the Bible: “My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord” (Psalms 104:34).