Healing is , in many ways, a subjective experience—it shines with added truth and wonder when seen from more than one viewpoint. Speaking as the one who was healed, Jacklyn Williams tells how persistent prayer overcame a severe respiratory illness, at a crisis point. Judy Wolff gives a daughter’s perspective on her mother’s remarkable healing. Today, Jacklyn is a Christian Science practitioner and teacher in Florida, and Judy is a practitioner in Virginia. Their accounts were first aired on the Sentinel’s Radio Edition.

It took a shift in thought

By Jacklyn J. Williams

A number of years ago, I was facing an illness—a breathing difficulty that seemed quite daunting. Attacks would occur and leave me gasping for air for a few days. This continued until the attacks were closer together and of longer duration each time.

Although the condition was never diagnosed, the symptoms were identical to what my next-door neighbor was having, and his illness had been medically diagnosed as emphysema.

I made a decision to rely entirely on prayer for healing. Because I’d had so many proofs of the healing power of God through the study of Christian Science in bringing up two children, it felt natural for me to use this method of healing. I just knew it would be effective in freeing me from this particular illness.

I prayed for myself and also had prayer-based treatment from a Christian Science practitioner. A practitioner’s aim is to help people gain a better understanding, of God, and through that understanding, to be healed.

The attacks became severe, to the point where I was completely disabled. My family had been caring for me with great love, but there was a lot of fear in the home. My husband, who was not a Christian Scientist at that time, frequently urged me to allow him to take me to a hospital. But he was kind enough and loved me enough to let me choose the type of healing treatment I wanted.

In my prayer I held to some spiritual facts that I knew were true. One of them was a statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: “There is no power apart from God” (p. 228). To me, that meant there was not the power of God versus another power. There simply was no other power than God. And God’s power was only good.

The illness reached a crisis point where I was getting a lot of mental urges—I called them “devilish arguments” because they were so negative—suggesting, “Why don’t you just give up and die?”

But I knew that God wouldn’t give me a message like that. I knew God loved me and that He preserves His creation. So I would push those thoughts right out of my mind, and continue to hold to the spiritual fact that God really was the only power and was a saving power and a healing power. I knew that whatever issues I was dealing with, I would have to face down in some form now or in the so-called hereafter. And I wanted to face this challenge now, and have a victory over it here. I didn’t want to postpone finding healing in any way. The fundamental issue to me was demonstrating—that is, proving in a practical, tangible way—that God made us spiritual, and that His power can conquer every negative force, every bad condition, in human existence.

One night the situation seemed very bleak. I wondered if I had the strength to go on. And that was basically a turning point, because I agreed to be taken to a Christian Science nursing facility. I was taken there the next morning. Going to the facility allowed my family to have some release from their concern for me, knowing that my physical needs would be cared for in a very adequate way while the practitioner and I focused on prayer and listening to God. The facility also provided a beautiful healing atmosphere that was free from the fear that had been surrounding our home.

There was a shift in thought as soon as I entered the facility because there was such an atmosphere of peacefulness and expectation of good. I felt really calm for the first time in months. There was a release from the tension and physical struggle that made any ordinary activity such as sitting up in bed or holding a book nearly impossible. This release continued each day I was there until I was doing everything that is normal with complete ease.

After four days at the Christian Science nursing facility, I came home completely healed. There was no period of recuperation. All the symptoms I was experiencing had vanished. I had lost a great amount of weight and had a haggard look, but that appearance was completely transformed by the time I reached home. During those four days, I had realized that there couldn’t be any other outcome. Why? Because God was a present help, and I was made spiritual, not material, as Science and Health says (see p. 468).

I went right back to a rigorous schedule of work and caring for my family. That healing came after 11 months of steady, persistent prayer. There has never been a return of the illness, and it’s now been over 20 years since this healing took place.

Fear gave way to God’s messages

By Judy L. Wolff

During  the time my mother was ill, I envisioned myself as a swimmer in a river, swimming upstream against a strong current, developing spiritual muscle—spiritual stamina—through prayer. What I was swimming against was a current of frustration and fear for my mother that engulfed our family. And even though it wasn’t easy, I felt that Mom and I were really getting that spiritual strength, discipline, and depth that we needed to face this situation, as we listened to God.

Our conviction was growing deeper; our love for God was even sweeter, and our love for each other was growing. To us this was not God sending a difficult situation to see if we could overcome it, but it was actually an opportunity to grow in our understanding and appreciation of the fact that God doesn’t do that, because He is all good.

Every time I would look at Mom, though, there didn’t seem to be any physical improvement. It really seemed as though we were standing still. But while a swimmer may appear not to be making any progress against a really strong current, she already has the victory, in that she has not been overcome by the current and swept downstream.

So every night when I would go to bed and would feel this wave of frustration come over me, I would think: “No, today was another day of victory. We’re still swimming, and we have not been swept downstream into giving up, being overcome with frustration, or growing angry—we are still in place.” That thought gave me great encouragement day after day. I felt that we were getting stronger than the current, and, at some point, we would break free and would swim—find healing—very quickly and very fast. I was going to continue to develop that spiritual muscle. Because evil can seem so aggressive, I found that this swimming analogy really gave me the strength and encouragement and discipline to stick with praying.

Whenever I wasn’t with my mother—if I was running an errand or doing something away from her—I always felt this anxiety to get right back into the room and check to see if she was still breathing and still with us. I found that this was counterproductive, because what I was actually doing was checking the material situation and ignoring Spirit, or God.

What woke me up to ending this tendency was a verse from Isaiah:”Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me” (Isa. 45:11). I had been “asking” matter, not Spirit. So, if I was in the car and on the way home and was starting to get worried about her, I’d say, “OK, I’m going to ask God how she is. God is her Creator, God is taking care of her, God is maintaining and sustaining her. ‘OK, Father, how’s my mom doing?'”

Then I would get these great messages back that I had to attribute to God’s voice. I’d hear something like, “She’s doing just as beautifully and wonderfully as I am.” And I would say, “OK, now that’s God telling me this, so it has got to be true, because God is Truth. I’m going to accept that this is true.” And I would have great peace. Then, when I would go in to check on her, she was still with us, continuing to pray for herself.

One day, however, Mom’s condition reached a critical point, and it looked as if her death was imminent. That’s when she and Dad made the decision that she would be moved to a Christian Science nursing facility. That night, I just broke down. She had become emaciated, and her breathing was so labored that I didn’t see how she would actually even make it through the night.

I went up to my room. And I became angry with God—angry because I thought I was losing my mom very shortly and that God had not healed her. But I was even angrier that God was not turning out to be, at that moment, the God I had grown up loving, learning about in Sunday School, reading about in the Bible. The Scriptures say, “God is love,” (I John 4:16). God is just and good. I wasn’t seeing any evidence of a just and fair God in this situation, and God certainly didn’t seem loving by allowing my mother to go through this suffering.

At one point I cried out in desperation: “If there was ever a moment I needed a mother, and ever a moment I needed a God, this is the moment.” What I got was a sweet message that came as my own thought: “Well, who is your mother?”

I thought, “Well, it’s the woman downstairs, who may or may not still be with us at this moment. And I’m going to miss all her love, her generosity, her kindness, her selflessness.” As I began to list off those many qualities I loved about my mom, I began to see that they were not qualities that were unique to her. This thought woke me up. I realized that she didn’t have the corner on the market for kindness, generosity, and selflessness. Those were qualities derived from God. I thought about the many people who, over the last couple of months, had expressed those same qualities to me. God had been mothering me all along with those beautiful qualities through many other people.

As the question came to mind again—Who is my mother?—I finally recognized what the Bible says in many different ways: God was my Mother. And because God was my Mother, whether I was present or not with my human mother, I could always count on God’s mothering and nurturing to be present in many forms—healing, protecting, and caring for me and for my mom.

This brought a feeling of release. I felt an overwhelming conviction of God’s mothering love for me right at that moment. I felt free. And I knew that that would bless my mom. It would be one less worry and fear about her, and she would feel my conviction and my trust in God concerning her. I no longer was being pulled down by the depressing thoughts and fears that were swirling over her condition.

Once she was settled at the Christian Science care facility, she was able to rest and continue receiving prayerful treatment from the Christian Science practitioner. My dad, my sister, and I did go to visit her on the third day she was there—we had agreed to give her a quiet time to respond to prayer. The practitioner had told us she was improving. Because the descent into disease had been long and painful for her, I guess I assumed that the road to health would also be long and laborious. So I just hoped to see her with her head up and able to speak, and that would have been an improvement.

When we arrived at her room, Mom opened the door herself and stood before us—completely healed. Her weight was back. She had nice, round cheeks again, and all her natural color had returned. All the symptoms of illness that had been so evident for so many months had completely disappeared.

We were absolutely awed, and all three of us broke into tears of joy. Mom had moved right into perfect health, almost overnight. It simply seemed miraculous.

This was a transforming experience for our family, and, of course, for my mom. She has been living such a productive life since then, sharing many of the wonderful ideas learned in that healing, and helping to heal others. And I’m just very, very grateful.