Testimony of Healing January 19, 1987 Issue

When I returned to college in my senior year, it was with an...

Abby Winland-Hillman

When I returned to college in my senior year, it was with an oppressively lonely feeling. Most of my close friends had graduated the year before, and I missed the camaraderie and stimulating conversations we had shared.

One evening as I was reading the Bible in a quiet place in my dormitory, I came across the story of Christ Jesus' being tempted in the wilderness (see Matt. 4:1–11). Although I had read this account many times before, this time I found it particularly interesting. I read the verses through very carefully, one at a time, noticing the preciseness of the text and writing down what to me was the spiritual significance of each line.

Because of the loneliness I'd been feeling, it seemed as though I, too, was in a wilderness of sorts, tempted by evil suggestions of isolation and emptiness. Mary Baker Eddy begins her definition of wilderness in the Glossary of Science and Health (p. 597): "Loneliness; doubt; darkness."