While growing up in a suburb of Chicago, I was raised in an orthodox Christian church. In high school I began dating my future husband, who had been brought up in the Church of Christ, Scientist. We often discussed religion, and we at­tended each other’s Sunday church services. I was impressed by his knowledge of the Bible, his spiritual insights into Bible stories and passages, and his willingness to rely on prayer and his understanding of God to heal any and all discordant challenges he faced. 

It wasn’t until much later, after we were married and had two children, that I became serious in learning more about Christian Science and demonstrating God’s healing power for myself. During one summer, I suddenly became very ill. My physical condition declined so drastically that it appeared I might pass on. 

I had called a Christian Science practitioner to pray for me, but I required round-the-clock care, and there was not yet a Christian Science nursing facility anywhere near where we lived. Ultimately, I decided to pursue hospitalization to get the nursing care I felt I needed.  

To be admitted to the hospital, however, required that I be examined by a team of physicians. They informed me that I had a severe case of pneumonia. Their recommended treatment was a program of strong antibiotics and a six-week stay in the hospital, after which they said my chances for recovery could be good. 

I didn’t wish to undergo medical treatment, however. I had mistakenly thought I could go to the hospital and just have nursing care. As I prayed deeply and thought about what to do, my thinking shifted away from a fear of passing on. 

I found comfort in a statement Mary Baker Eddy makes in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany: “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. Therefore despair not nor murmur, for that which seeketh to save, to heal, and to deliver, will guide thee, if thou seekest this guidance” (pp. 149–150). I felt a new confidence that my understanding of God’s love and what I had learned in Christian Science were, indeed, adequate for healing. 

This gave me the courage to kindly thank the physicians and request to be released from the hospital. Although they were surprised, they permitted me to leave, but with a stern warning that if left untreated my condition could easily become fatal.

I recalled a statement in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures where Mary Baker Eddy writes, “A Christian Scientist’s medicine is Mind, the divine Truth that makes man free” (p. 453). I assured them that the condition would be treated through Christian Science and that I would have the best “medicine” available.

As my husband drove me home, we began to rejoice and sing hymns of praise to God, including one of my favorites, Hymn 412 from the Christian Science Hymnal:

I continued to work with the Christian Science practitioner, and my physical condition improved rapidly with each passing hour. In the next days I was up and about and able to attend to the needs of our children. By the weekend, when members of my family from the US arrived for a previously planned visit, no evidence of the condition remained. I was healed and free.

This healing gave me even greater confidence in Christian Science and moved me forward in my spiritual under­standing. I felt I better understood my relationship to God. I rejoiced over the words Paul wrote to the Romans: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38, 39).

A short time later I applied for membership in The Mother Church, as well as membership in a local branch Church of Christ, Scientist. After a few years, I was accepted by a teacher of Christian Science for Primary class instruction. I continue to be so grateful for my ever-unfolding spiritual understanding and the many instances of healing I’ve had through Christian Science.

Kathleen Tasa 
Bad Soden am Taunus, Hessen, Germany