Article January 13, 2014 Issue

Healed of sadness when my guinea pig died

Sofia

I woke up one morning and got out of bed to check on my guinea pig, Brownie. But Brownie was gone. My mom had put a rose in the spot where Brownie usually slept. I knew what had happened, that Brownie had died.

I had learned in the Christian Science Sunday School that everyone is a spiritual idea, created by God—animals too. And I knew that the idea of Brownie was still alive. But I was very sad. I went to my mom. I asked, “What did you do with Brownie?” My mom said, “Dad and I put her in a shoe box and buried her in our front yard.” I went to check. I found the spot where they had buried Brownie. There was a plant on top of it.

I prayed. We had been studying the Lord’s Prayer in Sunday School (see Matthew 6:9–13). That was the first thing that came to my thought. I started with “Our Father which art in heaven.” In place of “Our Father,” I put all the names for God that I had learned—Truth, Soul, Spirit, Principle, Mind, Love, Life—and thought about what that meant. For example, God is Love and would never stop loving any of His creatures. Love is perfect.