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 Korinek

Kim was raised with Christian Science and has been an active Christian Scientist almost all of her adult life. What intrigues her most about Christian Science is the way it explains God as a law of universal Love itself.

By applying this law, she has experienced numerous healings of physical, financial and relationship difficulties in her own life and has seen healings in the lives of others relying on Christian Science. In the last twenty years, Kim helped others through prayer on a part time basis, and is now fully devoting herself to this practice.

Prior to her full time work in the Christian Science practice, she worked with the publisher of The Writings of Mary Baker Eddy (founder of Christian Science and author of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" - the full statement of Christian Science). She traveled the world, introducing Science and Health to book industries throughout Latin America, Australia and New Zealand and in parts of Europe and Asia. She found that Science and Health was welcomed by booksellers all over the world ? including in predominately Islamic, Hindu, Catholic, Christian and secular countries.

Kim worked with international teams to share the broader application of Christian Science to bring comfort, restore hope and ensure safety to thousands of people via media and special events for such situations as the SARS crisis, the economic collapse in South America, the Madrid bombings and the tsunami tragedy in Asia.

Prior to her work with the publisher, Kim was administrator for a Christian Science nursing facility ? a facility that gives nursing care to those who are under Christian Science treatment. Kim directed the day-to-day operations that contributed to the overall care and well being of many patients along with supervising all aspects of a licensed care facility.

Kim holds a Master's degree in Education Administration and took the course of Christian Science Primary Class Instruction in Christian Science healing in 1978. Every year, she takes a post graduate course in spiritual healing, attending with hundreds of Christian Scientists and practitioners representing up to 30 countries.

Kim, a mother of two boys, stays active in her lifelong love of the arts and outdoors, having met her husband while whitewater kayaking and racing. All four of them have lived in the East Coast and in the Midwest where they enjoy making art, as well as reading, traveling and having outdoor adventures.