Article September 16, 2013 Issue

Life is understandable

Iris Marsh

Christian Science has been the great blessing in my life. My mother turned to Christian Science after 15 years of childless marriage. The healing was quick, and I was born. However, there was no Christian Science church in our town, and Christian Science was not a part of our life.

As a child I attended Sunday School in a mainstream Christian church. When I was 12, we had a series of lessons to prepare us to join the church. However, I came home and declared: “I am not going back to church! I don’t believe in God. Religion is just positive thinking and made-up stories to make people feel good about bad times.” I must have been emphatic, as I don’t remember my parents ever asking me to reconsider. 

When I was 14, my father died just before Christmas, and then a few months later my grandmother passed away, too. Both had had the best current medical care, which was unable to help. Then my mom and I moved to a new state and decided to attend a Christian Science church. Years later one of the pupils in my first Sunday School class told me that she would never forget that class. I evidently sat down and announced that I didn’t believe there was a God, and if there was one, I didn’t want to know anything about Him because He took my father! My outlook at that time was that life was not understandable, so what was the point? It was like being in a dark, deep pit. 