Early last year, I carried my painting supplies down into a friend’s basement and realized that I’d done it without pain. I felt so free that I turned around and went back up and down the stairs again with delight.
While on vacation the year before, I had twisted my knee when I was tipped out of an inner tube in a swimming pool. Walking and stepping up had become painful and difficult. I prayed to know that, as a spiritual idea of God, man doesn’t have material body parts that can be wrenched, and that a knee represents the qualities of flexibility and freedom of movement. Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “All that God imparts moves in accord with Him, reflecting goodness and power” (p. 515). I held to the truth that my movement is an expression of God, Life, and that I move “in accord with Him.” To me this meant that my movement reflects God’s strength and harmony.
By the end of the week, my knee moved with more freedom and ease. But after I returned home from the trip, I often felt painful twinges. At the time, I was receiving frequent automated phone calls that began, “Are you a senior citizen?” and I would quickly hang up. But I was alerted to pray about the belief that pain can be a legitimate accompaniment to my age.
