Feeling comfort - not pain

I woke up some months ago in the middle of night with intense pain in my body. So intense that it was the only thing I could, well, think about. But very soon I was mentally calm enough to start praying - listening for an answer and being unwilling to take physical evidence more seriously than I take God. Is God a continuing presence? Absolutely.

It came to me with much clarity that man as God's child, is always and under any circumstance linked to the creator, the source of all being, the center of Life. And because of this link I could immediately gain access to comfort, to painless good, that is always there.

Pain is a distressing feeling of discomfort - emotional or physical - in consciousness, I realized quickly, and in consciousness alone. Since I have access to good, I have access to peaceful feelings of God's care and support, of harmony and health. This access to good mightily overrides the physical access to pain. Instead of having a link to mortality, man is eternally linked to immortality - here and now and always. We have open access to good.

It is like being a house guest - you are entitled to be where you are, instead of standing in front of the closed door. You don't ring the doorbell - you are already in! You have access to all the amenities in the house! I could not only understand this truth, but feel its impact as God's goodness expressed itself beautifully in my thought. The pain disappeared immediately and I went back to sleep.

Waking up very early I was led with intense gratitude to ponder some ideas Mary Baker Eddy shares about consciousness. Because consciousness is key to understanding the art and science of healing. What a gift to know our individual consciousness as a place in which God rules and peace is the norm. I found these quotes about "consciousness" especially inspiring, explaining to me the experience of the night:

Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man's dominion over the whole earth. (SH 14:25-28)
Spiritual, not corporeal, consciousness is needed. (SH 67:27-28)
Material sense does not unfold the facts of existence; but spiritual sense lifts human consciousness into eternal Truth. (SH 95:30-32)

In the book of Revelation we have this promise:

"I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever. And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.” (Revelation 21:3-5 . New Living Translation)

We exist because of divine Love. And as naturally as we feel at home in our home we can feel at home in God. Where all is loving and full of good, only good.