One of the most helpful healings I've had has to do with reconciliation. Two summers ago, I urged my three sisters to meet after an absence of six years so that we could all be together and talk over old times.
All went smoothly until I brought up some family happenings that, unbeknown to me, deeply offended the sister I was staying with. Shortly after returning home, I got up one morning and could barely walk across the floor of my bedroom. I felt as if my back was put out. "I have put out my sister, and that has resulted in putting out my back," is what I thought.
Many days of anguish followed as I searched my thought, rooting out self-love, self-justification, and self-will. I earnestly asked God to deliver me from these temptations. I considered writing to my sister, calling her long-distance, reaching out in some way. The worst thing was that in the back of my mind I couldn't get over the suggestion that my sister hated me. All the time that I struggled this way, the physical condition remained unchanged.
Then one day, as I reached out to God to understand my relation to Him more clearly, I suddenly realized, "I cannot be hated, because God is Love. God loves me; that's why I cannot be hated." What a relief that was!
I suddenly realized, "I
cannot be hated, because
God is Love. God loves me."
That was the turning point of the healing. Shortly after that the physical symptoms dropped off one by one. In about a month, I was again able to dive off a diving board, and even to learn how to do a backflip. I also found a way to reach out to my sister, and we have remained reconciled.
Weston, Massachusetts
