Healing of water on the knee was one of my first healings in...

Opal M. Smith

Healing of water on the knee was one of my first healings in Christian Science. In August, 1971, two medical doctors failed to give me any help. By November, 1971, I had learned a little about Christian Science, so I asked a practitioner for help. She told me that Mrs. Eddy had proved that pain is not real, but the pain in my knee seemed very real to me. We studied "the scientific statement of being" to prove that I did not have to have pain. Some of the lines in the statement, which is found on page 468 of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, are: "Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual."

I had overcome many other false beliefs, and one morning, going away from my car to the factory where I work, I didn't feel any pain in my knee and I knew that I was healed.

In December, 1971, I had started to study the weekly Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly, and this helped me to understand the effective work of the practitioner.

I had not told the practitioner that for fifteen years I had been sleeping on a bed board to help a sore back. The fear that compelled this, too, was being healed. One morning I took the board off and that night I slept without it, but the next morning I put it back on the bed. Several weeks later I thought that there is nothing in the nature of God, Spirit, or in His reflection, man, that could require matter to support it. So I took it off and never put it back. Sleeping on a board seems silly to me now.

Another healing was that of a stiff neck, and that came when I stopped thinking that a hot-water bottle could make it feel better and really trusted God to heal me of the false belief.

When I first came into the study of Christian Science, I was laid off from my job. I called the practitioner and she assured me that I could turn to God for guidance. I knew God could heal people, but I didn't know divine intelligence could help me get a job. I stayed home and studied Science and Health. We acknowledged that God is our only employer. I was offered three jobs and I accepted the one that seemed best for me. This took three weeks, I am still working at this job and have had a promotion and several pay raises.

Eighteen years ago I started to wear glasses. In a few years the doctor ordered bifocals, and later on, trifocals. He told me to wear them all the time. In the spring last year I wore them very little because they made me feel uncomfortable. In June that year when I went for my checkup, the doctor told me I did not need to wear glasses for anything. To me this was demonstrable proof of Mrs. Eddy's definition of "eyes" which reads in part (Science and Health, p. 586): "Spiritual discernment,—not material but mental."

I asked to have my driver's license corrected and was given an eye test, and for the first time in eighteen years I am not required to wear glasses when driving. I credit this healing to my growing understanding of God.

I am so grateful for all the help I have received. I am a member of The Mother Church, a branch church, and have had class instruction.

(Miss) Opal M. Smith
Elgin, Illinois

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September 6, 1975

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