ONE NIGHT MY RIGHT UPPER ARM became painful, and it was difficult for me to move it. Soon I felt a constant, throbbing pain in the entire arm. It became so overwhelming that I couldn't sleep or find a comfortable position in which to hold my arm.
As I lay in bed, I began to pray, which got me thinking about what was real to me. The pain certainly felt real, but I knew from my study of Christian Science that because the pain wasn't from God, since God is Love, then it couldn't possibly be real. God's love being the reality meant that I could expect freedom from this—and any—ailment.
I thought about a statement I'd recently studied from the weekly Bible Lesson found in the Christian Science Quarterly. It was from Science and Health, and it reads, "Spirit and its formations are the only realities of being" (p. 264). I savored the opportunity to think about the depth of meaning and promise that this statement held. Could a painful arm truly be my reality? Not if Spirit formed me and made me perfect. I wanted to move beyond the pain and see that God forms all reality—and that reality can only express His nature, which is good.
