It certainly wasn't what I'd planned—to be alone and sick in a large city thousands of miles from home. I didn't know anyone, and my money was running out. The country where I'd been studying had just been hit by devastating floods. After having spent some time trying to help people dig out from the disaster, I needed rest. But it was clear that I wouldn't be able to get home for Christmas. Instead, there I was, alone in a small room—barely able to get out of bed.

I was a fairly new student of Christian Science. Some wonderful healings had come about in my life as a result of prayer. I knew I needed healing now. More than anything else, I didn't want to feel alone or afraid. I wanted to feel God's presence.

On the street I'd seen a poster telling the time and location of a Christian Science lecture. But the city was so confusing and unfamiliar to me that I couldn't imagine how I could get there. Yet I wanted so much to go. That lecture would help me—I was sure of it. It would help me to feel God's care for me and to understand my real spiritual identity as God's child.

I managed to get on a train that would get me to the part of the city where the lecture was being held, but then I became more ill than before and started to lose consciousness. At that point, however, all sorts of help began to come my way quite surprisingly. A complete strangere apparently somehow realized where I might be going and told me I could get off at the next subway stop. I was able to walk, although with difficulty. Then someone led me directly to the room where the lecture was being held.

I listened with all my heart to every word. I don't remember exactly what the lecturer said, but God's love and power were very real. It was clear that God taking care of me and that His protective laws were sustaining me. What safety and peace I felt!

It wasn't until after the lecture—as I walked out significantly freer and stronger—that I thought about the unusual help I'd had. It seemed to be much more than the normal kindness of people. To me it was a small miracle, almost like the account in the book of Acts in the Bible where an angel led Peter out of prison.

God is able to guide and comfort us and give us what we need, even when we can't imagine how that help can possibly come. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, had many experiences that proved to her that it is always possible for God, divine Love, to meet our need. In her remarkable book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, she writes, "The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love."

God isn't a faraway mystery, and He isn't like a human being who has limits or who favors some of His children over others. God governs His universe through His unchanging spiritual laws, which we can trust and understand. Healing, then, isn't miraculous in the sense of being some kind of temporary suspension of law. Healing is the natural fulfilling of God's law. Anyone can experience how God's law protect and heals.

Since God is ever present and never stop being God, His benevolent law is always operating and can't stop. Even when things seem hopeless and dark to us, God's tender, unfailing love is here and can break through the darkness, showing us that only what is spiritually true is actually real and powerful.

God's all-embracing love is central to the meaning of Christmas. Christ Jesus' birth and his ministry illustrate over and over again that divine Truth and goodness can't be hidden from us. That's because man is really spiritual and can never be separated from God, divine Love. The Science of Christianity opens our eyes to understand this.

The glimpse of divine Love I felt at that Christian Science lecture has always seemed like "home" to me. It was definitely a more secure and dependable sense of love than I'd been used to feeling. I felt supported. And I began to understand why no one could ever really be separated from this home, this heaven-bestowed love.

I went back to my little room filled with Christmas. That night I was by myself—but I didn't feel alone. I thought of people all over the world, including people in the area where homes had been flooded. The ever-present divine Love that had revealed itself to me must be with them, able to help them, too. Just as the Bible says, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."

For quite a while I just sat, quietly singing hymns and praying prayers that I knew were effective.

It was a wonderful night.

Elaine Natale