Article July 9, 2012 Issue

Needs met, doors opened

Barbi Johns

Our family came into Christian Science through the dramatic healing of my older sister when she was four years old and I was two. I was much too young at the time to fully realize the impact of this significant healing, but I often heard my mother share the events. It definitely changed the course of the religious practices in our home. My sister had accidentally ingested over 90 tablets of orange-flavored baby aspirin, which she mistakenly thought was candy. When my parents discovered this, she was rushed to the hospital, where the doctors gave them little hope for her recovery. My mother, who was just beginning to learn something of Christian Science, called a Christian Science practitioner for help through prayer, and a near instantaneous healing was the result.

After this impressive healing, my parents felt they must investigate Christian Science and thus began a lifelong study of this religion in our family. I still have some vague memories of being in the nursery/child-care room of our branch Church of Christ, Scientist, and then my very first Sunday School class. I progressed through all the classes in Sunday School to eventually graduate at age 20.

Another thing I remember about my early years is my mother quoting ideas from the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, written by Mary Baker Eddy. I honestly couldn’t count how many thousands of times I heard my mother say, for example: “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need” (p. 494). I think I became rather immune to these words, and they lost meaning to me. As the years passed, I looked at them as somewhat stale. If I needed to pray about something, I wanted sparkling and brilliant inspiration. Something new and more important. Little did I realize that this simple and truly powerful statement would become pivotal daily bread for me during a time of great need.

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