Since I have been a student of Christian Science all my life, I...

HELEN GIERSBACH

Since I have been a student of Christian Science all my life, I never considered seeking a medical diagnosis or using a material remedy when a recurring discomfort in one knee slowed my activities down considerably. Around July of 1982 the difficulty became constant. There were times when I could not walk at all, and many nights I could not sleep because of the pain. During that time I prayed, refusing to accept the suggestion of pain and disability. I also denied the belief that there could be a process of aging. I knew that in my real being as God's man I was whole and free.

During some of those nights when I was kept awake, I would think of how Jacob wrestled with the angel, and I was determined to hold on until I was healed (see Gen. 32:24–30). Mrs. Eddy says of Jacob (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 308): "Jacob was alone, wrestling with error,—struggling with a mortal sense of life, substance, and intelligence as existent in matter with its false pleasures and pains,—when an angel, a message from Truth and Love, appeared to him and smote the sinew, or strength, of his error, till he saw its unreality; and Truth, being thereby understood, gave him spiritual strength in this Peniel of divine Science."

I do not know when the healing occurred, but when a friend came to visit me for a few days that summer, I realized I was free to go places with her. She is also a lifelong Christian Scientist, and she was happy to rejoice with me over this complete healing.

There has been no return of the difficulty. As we read in Job (11:16, 17): "Thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away: and thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning."

For this healing and many other blessings I am deeply grateful.

HELEN GIERSBACH
Elmont, New York

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