When I was in middle school, I began asking deeper and deeper questions about God. I had been given a Bible, which I revered greatly, but I didn’t really understand it, although I loved the psalms and parts of Isaiah.

I was brought up in a belief system that said that I was a sinner from birth and that I was flawed. The God that I learned about was loving, yet judgmental.

My introduction to Christian Science was the fulfillment of the biblical promise “Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” ( Jeremiah 29:13 ). Many years ago, when my father was ill and not expected to survive, I began to think deeply about the meaning of life, and wonder who we really are and what our purpose is for existing.

I started studying Christian Science in 2014. For about four years prior to this, I felt God actively leading me.

It was the early 1990s, and I was living in Paris. I had been praying for many years to find a religion that would help me learn about God.

In the early 1990s, as part of my graduate school program, I took a class on environmental policy. The professor assigned The Christian Science Monitor , telling the class it was the best newspaper for coverage of environmental issues and that we could skip the religious article in the back.

I remember as a young girl having the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy in our home. I don’t recall reading it or having anyone read it to me; I think a friend had given it to my mother.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” ( Psalms 46:1 ). I love this Bible citation.

“What is gratitude but a powerful camera obscura, ” wrote Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, in her book The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany . The full quotation reads, “What is gratitude but a powerful camera obscura, a thing focusing light where love, memory, and all within the human heart is present to manifest light” ( p.

I was not looking for a new religion. But I was looking for Truth.