Christ Jesus sent seventy disciples out on a healing mission. The mission was successful, and the disciples were full of pride in their accomplishment. But Jesus turned their thought from joy in their success to the greater joy of understanding man's exclusively spiritual nature. He told them, "Rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." It is for whatever measure of spiritual understanding I've gained in, many years' study of Christian Science that I am most profoundly grateful.

My wife passed away suddenly when our three children were quite young. I was overpowered with grief and loneliness. It was very early in my study of Christian Science, and I didn't seem able to think about anything but this terrible loss. Yet, during the entire experience, the truth of the following statement from The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany by Mrs. Eddy was proved in many ways: "Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee."

I was befuddled as to what would happen next to me and my children, particularly because a job change already underway required my immediate relocation away from home and friends to a large metropolitan area. But prayer, and the tenderness and understanding of those around me, helped bring forth with clarity and wisdom the right ideas for the children's care. There was never a moment when the children were deprived of mothering love. They were soon in the temporary care of loving grandparents until I could complete the job relocation and reestablish a home for the family.

At first, this simultaneous loss of my wife and separation from my children, my home, and my friends seemed to compound my grief. With the strong prayerful support of a Christian Science practitioner, I found Love's "tender lesson" awaiting me. Progressively I came to feel the loving arms of God embracing me. Quite soon, in response to my need for a home, I was guided to a little cottage situated in a rose garden; this cottage expressed my idea of home, and it lifted my spirits just to be in it. The grief was fully healed. Also, I was soon introduced to one who was later to become my wife and happy companion as we grow in our understanding of Christian Science. Within a year the family was reunited. We relocated to a lovely smaller city, and I found new activity that proved to be very fruitful.

Through the years since this healing of grief, healings of physical disabilities and business reverses, and evidence of character purification, have added a whole treasury of tender lessons from which I draw much joy and gratitude. But as with the seventy disciples, the greater joy is in my conviction that our "names are written in heaven."

Roger L. Weinheimer
Charlottesville, Virginia