Testimony of Healing

Wound from Fish Spine Healed Through Prayer

My husband and I were enjoying a day of snorkeling with my sister and her husband in the warm tropical water of Hawaii.  We were feeding the fish as we snorkeled, when one fish grabbed the plastic bag of food I was holding.  The bag caught on its fin, and I was concerned that the fish might become wrapped in the plastic and suffocate, so I swam after it.  I managed to pull the bag loose, but in the process, the palm of my hand was stabbed by the fish's sharp spine.

My husband quickly swam with me to shallower water.  As I looked down at my hand for the first time, I saw a puncture wound, and my hand was beginning to hurt and swell.  I'd become a certified scuba diver a number of years earlier, and during that training had learned of the types of tropical fish that are considered to be poisonous to humans.  While I didn't recognize the fish I'd just tangled with, the fear that it might have had poison in its sharp spine started to nag at me.  Thoughts of fear and alarm began to creep in.  I asked my husband to help me pray for healing, and immediately turned to God for comfort.

Since the time when I was a small child, there have been many occasions when I've been healed quickly of physical difficulties through prayer, so it was natural for me to turn to God's powerful love for an effective resolution to this situation.  I knew there was a reliable Principle, a universal law, that protected both me and that fish from danger, and that this was the law that keeps all God's creatures safe from harm.

I thought about the Bible story that describes when the Apostle Paul was shipwrecked on the island of Melita and was bitten by a poisonous snake while gathering firewood (see Acts 28:35).  After shaking the snake off his hand, he suffered no harm, much to the amazement of the people who lived on the island.  Paul's unwavering trust in God's healing power protected him from the effects of the snakebite.

I also pondered a particular passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "All of God's creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible" (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 514).  From this I reasoned that the fish, as one of God's creatures, could not have the intention of maliciously harming me.  And since my attempt to help the fish had come out of concern for its welfare, I'd been expressing the love that God gave me.  God's love was my armor, my protection, in every situation, no matter what the physical evidence might suggest.

Soon I felt calm and assured that things were under control.  I was able to continue snorkeling.  I rejoiced in the beautiful surroundings and the colorful fish I saw, and made conversation with my sister and her husband on the beach.

But as we all drove back to our hotel at the end of the day, I was surprised to see that the wound was even more visible and that the symptoms of swelling and redness were aggressive.  I knew I'd made progress in my prayers, and I wanted to keep it up, so my husband and I quietly shared spiritual ideas together in the car.  My husband reminded me that the facts of God and His perfect creation were alone real and powerful, and that it wasn't my job to try to get rid of my discomfort through prayer; I was just acknowledging God's allpower and affirming that He could never create anything that could harm me.

When I got back to our room, I noticed red stripes on my arm up to my elbow, and I recognized this as a possible sign of blood poisoning.  At this point, the thought came to me that there was more to this situation than just the healing of an injured hand.  I was learning that I could experience the harmony of God's creation right then, and not at some future point after I had more time to study or grow in my understanding.  My understanding of God equipped me to handle any situation that would threaten to disturb my consistent joy or health. I spent some time praying with passages from the Bible and from Science and Health, and was comforted by the spiritual truths I was reading.  A couple of hours later, the pain went away.

As I continued to pray, these lines from "the scientific statement of being" in Science and Health helped me feel confident that healing would be complete: "Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. ... Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual" (p. 468).  I realized that I was not a material being who could be damaged and hurt, but that my being was spiritual and unchangeable.  Those ideas stilled any lingering fears, and I had a peaceful night's rest.

When I woke up the next day, I saw that the puncture wound had closed, and the swelling and red stripes on my arm were gone.  Within another day or two, the mark on my hand completely disappeared.  This experience didn't prevent me from continuing to enjoy our vacation, and it provided me with one more proof of God's healing power.

Julie Yeager Arthur
Tacoma, Washington

Reprinted with permission from the Christian Science Sentinel April, 2007, page 24
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