Diagnosed skin cancer healed

In the fall of 2008, an unsightly growth appeared on my forehead. I’d witnessed and experienced healings of illness, injury, loss, and other challenges in our family throughout my life, and it was natural to turn first to Christian Science prayer-based treatment. I also called a Christian Science practitioner for support.

However, as the growth got bigger, so did my fear, which prompted me to see a dermatologist. A biopsy was performed, and I was told that this was skin cancer, caused by heredity and prior sun damage. Radiation or surgery was given as options for removal. Surgery was scheduled with a specialist because the doctor felt the growth was too large for him to remove, and that plastic surgery might also be required.

As this information was being presented, an angel message of spiritual strength assured me that I did have a third, and better, choice. It became clear to me that medical options offer a temporary material fix, whereas metaphysical healing through Christian Science provides a permanent spiritual solution. Fear, self-condemnation, and family members’ concerns had seemed to be reasons to seek a medical diagnosis. I now know that there needed to be much more alertness every day, on my part, to what Mary Baker Eddy referred to as “animal magnetism,” the idea that there is a power at work in our lives opposed to God.

Meeting and speaking with the Christian Science practitioner again on a regular basis gave me a renewed sense of my spiritual identity, and the confidence to cancel the surgery. The medical staff called, concerned about the canceled appointment, but I assured them that I was in good care and relying on Christian Science treatment. I knew that healing was going on, and felt more and more confident that I could totally trust and yield to the power of God’s love and care.

For about three months, with help from the practitioner, both theories of heredity and irreversible sun damage were prayerfully addressed head-on. Many articles from the early Sentinels and Christian Science Journals were shared, and the CD Anthology of Classic Articles was my companion in the car. I especially enjoyed Louise Knight Wheatley’s article “The smell of fire.” In the article, residual symptoms related to past history are identified as the false belief that error did happen, and has a history. Trust in the one God delivers us from fiery trials of false beliefs, without a hint of damage, no sting, no remembrance of anything ungodlike ever existing, just as it did for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the Bible (see Daniel, chapter 3). Always walking with us, as in the furnace, is the redeeming, comforting Christ-presence.

Again from the Anthology of Classic Articles, Paul Stark Seeley’s “Right when, right then” helped me see that right when irresponsibility or willfulness or DNA supposedly put me in harm’s way, right then, in the infinity of preexistence with our Father-Mother God, divine Soul, I, and everyone, was being blessed with the light of the Christ—and the Christ is “the Way.” I was learning that whenever the human mind tries to point to a person, place, or thing to justify itself, we can respond as Jesus did when he healed the blind man: “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (John 9:3). In God’s eyes, all of us are inherently innocent!

As I continued to work with the practitioner, the basis of my ongoing prayer and study, and our conversations, was always that Christian Science treatment does not try to change matter, but uncovers and discovers the Truth already in place and intact. There were patient reminders that “error” (such as an ugly image of cancer) has no source, no substance, and no law to support it. Taking a firm stand that Mind, God, cares for the body, and mentally addressing fear, superstition, and world belief were stepping stones of spiritual discovery. As I prayed with these ideas, the perfection of God’s spiritual creation became more and more real to me, and the growth diminished, becoming less and less noticeable.

I knew the healing was complete when I read an article in the March 2009 Journal titled “Through a lens—clearly.” The author, Janet Clements, witnessed healing of a growth resulting from the realization that “Spirit blesses the multiplication of its own pure and perfect ideas,” as stated in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 512). This was the moment of resonance with all the previous prayerful work that had gone on. I agreed with the ideas in this article wholeheartedly, and had a complete healing. This was five months after the problem began. It has now been over a year. There’s been no recurrence and no scar.

In addition to the healing, the study, work, and prayer involved have blessed many areas of family life. Our branch church elected me Second Reader, dissolving a history of resistance on my part, and I’m happy to serve. Employment opportunities have unfolded for every member of our family, along with other signs of progress and renewal. As I look back in humility and gratitude, these proofs of God’s care seem like miracles, but are, as Science and Health tells us on page 118, signs of “the law of Love, in which nature and God are one and the natural order of heaven comes down to earth.”

Josephine Bayard | Wilmington, Delaware, US