Knee pain swiftly healed
Three years ago, my husband and I rented a condominium located on steep terrain. While he was busy with phone calls, I brought in groceries and suitcases from our car, up and down many stairs.
As I repeatedly went up and down, one knee at first felt uncomfortable, then quickly became very painful. I remembered that the same knee had buckled several years earlier as I was descending the stairs in my residence, causing me to fall. Now I became afraid that this sore knee would hinder our hikes, or worse, that I might fall down the stairs again.
I remembered that all those years ago I had been acutely focused on the pain and had looked for a better way to descend the stairs. You might say that I looked to the pain to direct my way. However, this time I was more alert, meaning that I didn’t try to ignore the pain or willfully push through it, and I didn’t let it lead. Instead, I strove to bear witness to God’s goodness right then and there. I knew God’s goodness to be purely spiritual rather than physical, so I stopped right where I was and closed my eyes as I prayed to acknowledge my spiritual, indestructible nature as a child of God.
How could I affirm this when my knee was causing me so much pain? I have learned from my study of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, that the physical senses have no intelligence to inform me of what is true about me. These senses suggest that I am made of matter, which is the opposite of God, Spirit. But God is all-powerful and entirely good, and gives us only spiritual sense, and this is how we accurately identify what is good and real.
Standing there in the condo’s parking area, I realized that the questions “What if my knee gave out?” and “What if I fell?” were not thoughts from God, so I did not have to be afraid of what they suggested. Now, instead of fearing a fall, I saw these suggestions for the lies that they were. I knew God would never cause pain, fear, or injury to His beloved daughter.
As I uncovered this false belief, my knee began to hurt even more, and I remembered what Science and Health says about this: “Uncover error, and it turns the lie upon you. Until the fact concerning error—namely, its nothingness—appears, the moral demand will not be met, and the ability to make nothing of error will be wanting” (p. 92). I wanted to see the nothingness of the error.
As I went back to climbing up and down the stairs, I reached for a familiar idea from page 463 of Science and Health and altered it to fit my situation. I stopped and said out loud, “I am a spiritual idea without a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive, now!” I knew that I was a spiritual idea, forever sheltered in divine Mind, God, and that a knowledge of this heals. I then thanked God for being All and for filling all space.
Later that evening, as my husband and I went for a walk, I gave God a silent “thank you” with each step. The next day, our hike required us to maneuver down a muddy, slippery path to the water’s edge. It was so steep that we had to hang on to a rope railing to make the descent. I realized that there was absolutely no pain from my knee. I was free. Thank you, God! This healing has remained permanent, and I am so grateful.
Carol Coykendall Raner
Forest Ranch, California, US
