When I was in college, I met an attractive young man from a nearby college. One night, after we had been dating for a few months, I found out that he was a Christian Scientist. What a disappointment! Weren’t Christian Scientists those people who didn’t believe in doctors?
When I went back to my dorm, I woke my roommate up and gave her the bad news. Her reply: “It’s not the end of the world. Could we leave it until the morning?”
The next day, she, more open-minded than I, went to the library and brought back the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy, and we both started reading it. I loved the first chapter, “Prayer.” It speaks of a God who is very different from the one I had learned about in my church’s Sunday School.
I had been raised in a traditional Protestant denomination and believed what I was taught. I didn’t question anything. But this new view of God as infinite, all-loving Mind challenged those long-held beliefs.
As much as I liked that first chapter, though, I couldn’t read beyond it, knowing that Christian Scientists rely on prayer rather than conventional medicine for healing. My grandfather was a doctor, and I had great respect for him. I just couldn’t go against that, though I had observed that traditional medicine did not have all the answers.
I did love this fellow I was dating, however. And eventually – to adapt a line from Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre” – reader, I married him anyway!
On Sundays, my husband and I each went to our own church. After a few years, we had a lovely daughter. We took turns taking her to church, as both churches had a nursery. A few years later, we were expecting another child. Having had a difficult first childbirth under medical care, I was determined not to repeat that experience. I wanted to find a different approach.
My husband gave me the Christian Science textbook and suggested that I read it. I did, and over the next six months, I gained a completely new understanding of God. Science and Health tells us, for instance, “The Christian Science God is universal, eternal, divine Love, which changeth not and causeth no evil, disease, nor death” (p. 140).
This was quite different from the God I had always pictured – a far-off giant who governed by whim. I’d grown up thinking that God loved some people more than others and that He didn’t love me as much as He loved other people. Now, though, I was discovering that God is Love itself and loves and cares impartially for His entire creation. I was also learning about God as Spirit and about my true being as Spirit’s entirely spiritual offspring.
I withdrew from my previous church and began attending church with my husband. The birth of our second child was completely different from my earlier experience. I was not afraid because I knew that God was right there, loving and governing all – me, the baby, and everyone. I expected the birth to go well, and it did.
In addition to having a harmonious childbirth, I noticed that without any specific prayer on my part, just reading the textbook, I was healed of a chronic skin problem that I had been told I would always have.
For these and the many other healings my family and I have had since, I am most grateful. I am also very grateful to Mrs. Eddy, who worked unselfishly so that we can all experience healing and freedom.
Originally published as an article in the Dec. 15, 2025, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
