Article March 28, 1994 Issue

A lesson in "forgetting those things which are behind"

The light of Christ removes the shadows of the past, healing and restoring hope.

Debra D. Brandell

One day while I was spending some time with a little niece, she complained of a hurt on her foot. At first, I reassured her that God loved her. I urged her to forget about the difficulty for the moment and to think about the fact of God's care. "But I can't forget about it," she exclaimed. Knowing that more than words were needed, I prayed for the realization of divine Love's ever-presence, for both of us to feel its tender touch, quieting fear and reassuring us of God's gentle and powerful goodness. As His presence became clearer in thought, the little one quieted, and she said, "I'm beginning to forget about it!" In no time she was happily going about her busy, play-filled day, and at lunch she shared with her mother the news of her quick and joyous healing.

The experience showed me once again that the comfort of the Christ is more than just words. The regenerating, divine presence can be felt now. It not only turns us away from the memory of hurts and mistakes, it removes both their supposed causes and effects. As we allow the present fact of God's infinitude—divine Love filling all space and existing eternally—to transform our view of the past and future, we see that there is never time or place when man is actually separated from his divine source, God, good. We are enabled to follow Paul's practice: "... forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward themark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:13, 14).

The past as an accumulation of events, some good and some not so good, may persistently knock at the door of memory. The future may appear uncertain, as though we are left waiting for something to happen, perhaps feeling our experience is at the whim of fate. The present can seem to lie somewhere between these two conditions. But the Science of Christ shows that true existence is constituted only of the uninterrupted unfoldment of God's good. This Science helps us measure experience only in terms of what we learn and demonstrate of God and His idea, or reflection, man. We can discard anything that is contrary to good as having no validity or history.

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