I tell this story so much that my sons roll their eyes when I tell it to someone in their presence. Although they have heard it a gazillion times, it still holds fresh lessons for me. This is the story.

Gabe (at 4 years old) had a bad ear infection. I was praying for healing, praying and affirming God's allness and the powerlessness of illness to harm Gabe, when Micah (at 6 years old) came to the door. I asked him to help me pray. He waited about two seconds, said okay and then said "Gabe, let's go play!" Gabe immediately woke, his ear totally cleared up. Both boys then ran into the next room where they proceeded to jump up and down on our guest bed.

After a while I joined them. I asked Gabe how his right ear was and he said fine. I asked him how his left ear was and he said fine, then went back to the business of jumping. When I asked Micah how he prayed he told me that "God gave me His playing thoughts."

Micah knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God made us to play. Nothing could convince him otherwise. Nothing could stand in the way of that clear truth. Although my sons are much older now, I continue to draw lessons from this wonderful healing.

We are made to play. Our Father-Mother God did not make us to suffer, God made us to jump up and down. God made us in His image and likeness, perfect, whole and entire.

Play (in a very unplayful analysis) is about engagement, presentness and adventure. I once attended an educational conference on play. The speaker started off with an umbrella, a brick and a plastic flower or some other obscure thing on the stage. It was a widely disjointed talk, at times even silly and I found myself getting irritated. But as his presentation went on, there was also something magic in what he was saying. He kept talking, weaving stories and anecdotes along the way. Toward the end, he got us all to sing a beautiful lilting tune.

He had invited us all to come to a place of playing.

There was this huge auditorium of students and professionals all singing. There was a hushed and quietly happy moment after our song. We were remembering what it was like to play. We were caught with one another playing.

Those experts of play - children - are showing us the way back to play. Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:

"Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new,renders thought receptive of the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear, - this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony."

In the book of Matthew of the New Testament, Christ Jesus says,

"Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

So I think that playing is about dropping pretension. Play is selfless and is about the serious business of discovery. It's about being open to new possibilities, about connecting to very different things and laughing that things do connect in surprising ways. Play brings us home to who we really are. And in healing, who we really are is God's perfect and play-full child.

Kim Crooks Korinek, CS

http://www.kimckorinek.com

Kim has been practicing healing through prayer through most of her adult life. She has experienced numerous healings of issues concerning health, finances and relationships for herself and her family and friends. Now, she practices Christian Science healing prayer professionally as a Christian Science practitioner and is a free lance inspirational writer.

After six and a half years of living in the intellectually rich and energetic Boston area, Kim and her family moved back to the sensible and extended-family-rich Midwest. They now live in the northwoods of Wisconsin, surrounded by lakes, forests and plenty of sky. She lives with her husband, who is an artist blacksmith, her two sons who are fast becoming adults, and their Rottweiler, who drools with unbounded affection. In addition, they share their yard with a neighborhood bear, a family of deer, a blue heron and a loving loon couple.