Affliction purifying and elevating man

On a Sunday morning this March, I was up early preparing for Sunday school when the fire alarm went off, repeatedly blaring FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! I was grateful there was no fire, but in getting up to check it out, I realized something was physically off. Although there was no pain, there was severe hemorrhaging. Because the word fire had been so insistent, I went to the definition of fire in the glossary of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. What stood out was the last phrase, “affliction purifying and elevating man” (Science and Health 586:13–14). Knowing I’d been given a promise and spiritual standpoint for praying, I felt peace.

I found a substitute for my class and was able to continue to work for myself and patients on Sunday and Monday, although I needed to remain still. On Monday evening, however, I called a Christian Science practitioner as the symptoms hadn’t abated and my husband and I were scheduled to leave for the airport early Wednesday morning to help our son and daughter-in-law with a move. (The passages from the practitioner didn’t come through, but we later discovered we had been working along the same lines.) By Tuesday afternoon the symptoms had stopped, the practitioner was released, and we went to bed, packed and ready for the trip.

Later Tuesday night, different, aggressive symptoms appeared. I couldn’t get out of bed to study, but spent much of the night clinging to/praying with/insisting on these two powerful spiritual facts: God is my Life and the law of my being, and “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (I John 1:5). From a previous healing, many years ago, I had learned to cling to the light and sense of God’s presence, allness, and power, and to refuse to give in to any dark thoughts, symptoms, or fears.

Sensing the challenge, my supportive and prayerful husband quietly cancelled our flights. Like Jacob, I was still wrestling with some error, but was freer by morning. By Wednesday evening I was free enough that, through prayer, we were led to proceed with the trip. My husband rebooked the flight for Thursday afternoon. (Unbeknownst to me, he also made arrangements for a wheelchair at the airport in case I needed extra support; gratefully, I did not need it.)

I am grateful for the healing, for yet another proof of God’s ever-present Love, for my husband’s practical unflappable support, and for being able to help our son and daughter-in-law with cleaning, unpacking, and painting. Since that reassuring promise from the glossary, I’ve become much more aware of, and receptive to, the many quiet (and not so quiet) ways God speaks to us, prepares our thought, guides us, and provides whatever is needed—prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies—to carry us onward and upward through challenges. This healing affirms once again, “Ah Lord God!…there is nothing too hard for thee” (Jeremiah 32:17).