Injured knee quickly healed
“I’m fine” was my response to a friend’s concern. I had just slid on wet grass, which was very muddy after a recent snow, and my legs splayed in different directions. Struggling to stand, I became covered in mud, but immediately my friend set me on my feet, later explaining how her training as a Christian Science nurse had just “kicked in.”
Later, I looked up some amusing definitions in a thesaurus for the word fine. I found, “blooming,” “rosy,” and “full of beans”—which, in Britain, means full of energy. I was in pain, caked in mud, and dealing with shock. I was far from rosy and full of beans. However, my declaration that I was fine was the reality of my spiritual perfection, and the prelude to my eventual healing.
As I walked into my house covered in mud, my husband’s amusement soon changed as he saw my obvious pain, and he quickly helped clean me up. He is not a Christian Scientist, so I decided not to discuss the details of my injuries with him. I didn’t want him to be unnecessarily concerned. The injuries were alarming with one knee not looking a bit like the other. My husband knew that I needed to be “quiet with my books”—the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy—so he left me to my studies.
At first, I will confess, I felt very frustrated. “How could this happen?” I thought. In times like these, Mrs. Eddy urges her readers to “Let the perfect model be present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized opposite” (p. 407 ). I had just attended a church service, during which we’d sung a hymn with a line that said, “Reveal in us Thy might” (Duncan Sinclair, Christian Science Hymnal, No. 206 ). It was this idea that made me realize that as a spiritual idea, I, Kate, was right now a powerful example of how we’re always connected to God—unconditionally loved, cherished, and never struggling alone. With that inspiring thought, my feelings of indignation and irritation lifted, and soon I felt at peace, knowing that all would be well.
Early the next day, I contacted my Christian Science teacher who immediately gave me Christian Science treatment and tenderly suggested I study some more ideas in Science and Health. I turned to a page that said: “Have no fear that matter can ache, swell, and be inflamed as the result of a law of any kind, when it is self-evident that matter can have no pain nor inflammation. Your body would suffer no more from tension or wounds than the trunk of a tree which you gash or the electric wire which you stretch, were it not for mortal mind” (p. 393 ).
After reading this, I realized that while I was claiming my spiritual perfection as God’s beloved daughter, at times I was also accepting contradictory thoughts about pain and distress. I was finally able to stick with only true thoughts when I found another line in Science and Health that asked, “Is there no divine permission to conquer discord of every kind with harmony, with Truth and Love?” (p. 394 ). Human love is comforting and essential, and certainly my friend and my husband had both most lovingly assisted me. But that love hadn’t healed the situation. It was universal Love, God, whose presence I’d been assured of during my study and prayer, that truly lifted me out of the morass of pain and mud. Within a few hours, my very swollen knee shrank to its right size, and I was able to walk normally.
The following morning I was completely fine, and I contacted my Christian Science teacher to tell her the good news and to rejoice. My husband was also so impressed with this quick healing, I remember him saying that it was “remarkable.”
Over many years, my confidence in the efficacy of Christian Science healing has grown steadily. And with the help of compassionate practitioners, and through my own prayers, I have been freed from many difficulties, including back pain, sinusitis, influenza, and a heel condition that made it hard to walk. My gratitude is unbounded.
Kate Nicholls
Belper, Derbyshire, England
