Becoming a better healer
The “call” to take Christian Science Primary class instruction can reach one in the most unusual locations and unexpected ways.
I was serving in the United States Army as an artist during the Vietnam War, having been drafted out of graduate school. Along with four other artists, I was sent to Thailand to record the noncombat activities of the army in that country, such as building roads and transporting supplies. We were somewhere in the countryside, surrounded by a wide expanse of rice fields, when our lieutenant found me and delivered some mail—a letter from home. It ended with a simple postscript: “You might like to know that _____ will be teaching her first Primary class late this summer, when you will once again be a civilian.”
As I’ve thought about that message over the years, what is remarkable is not that it found me in a rice field in Southeast Asia, but that my first response to it was “Great, that’s for me!” Except for observing how much annual Christian Science association meetings meant to my mother and grandmother, I had never given any serious thought to class instruction. But throughout my military experience, I had placed such wholehearted reliance on God that it was completely natural for me to see this next step as a way of expressing gratitude for all the protection, friendship, spiritual growth, and service that had unfolded for me up to that point in the army.
It is amusing now to recall my pre-acceptance interview with my teacher. I was asked, “What do you expect class instruction will do for you?” I offered a variety of answers, but each time was encouraged to “try again.” Finally, I was provided with the answer: “You want to become a better healer!”
Despite the blush of those awkward moments, I was accepted into that teacher’s first class, and in all the years since then I have been so grateful for what I’ve learned in class and at our annual association meetings. I cannot think of a single circumstance, event, problem, or need that has not been blessed when I approached it with the thought: “How can I better demonstrate healing in this situation? What did I learn in class instruction that can help me find the healing solution?” Over the years, these questions have been answered with a variety of meaningful healings.
One of the most important points that class instruction spotlighted for me, and which subsequent association meetings have underscored, is the impersonality of the healing Christ. Jesus pressed his disciples to identify the spiritual foundation of Christ-healing when he asked Simon Peter, “But whom say ye that I am?” (Matthew 16:15 ). Class instruction makes plain the source of all healing: The ever-presence of one good, supreme being—all-powerful, omniscient, impersonal. One God blessing all mankind—no exceptions. Mary Baker Eddy put it this way in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals” (p. 13 ).
In the same book Mrs. Eddy writes: “Ask yourself: Am I living the life that approaches the supreme good? Am I demonstrating the healing power of Truth and Love? If so, then the way will grow brighter ‘unto the perfect day.’ Your fruits will prove what the understanding of God brings to man” (p. 496 ). Class instruction and annual association meetings ensure that this question and its promise remain effective and relevant in our individual lives and in our prayers for our family, our community, and the world.
It is hard to imagine how Christian Science could be the viable force for healing that it is today had it not been for Eddy’s provision for our spiritual education through Primary class instruction.
