Just after my high school graduation, my mom passed away, and I felt lost. My rock was no longer there for me. And as expected, the dynamics of our family changed. The question I kept asking was, Why would God allow this? Our family’s pastor answered that it was God’s will. But this answer seemed completely disconnected from what I had learned in Sunday School, that “God is love” (I John 4:8), and I couldn’t believe my mom’s passing was His will. I left for college without an answer to my question and feeling sad, angry, and alone. 

Eight years later I was living and working in a remote part of the United States. Early one evening I was walking by myself in our housing complex’s garden. From behind me, I heard my mom’s voice speaking clearly to me, saying, “Jay, I am OK.” Although I knew she was no longer physically present, I had to look. Of course, when I turned around, there was no one there, but her voice had certainly seemed to be.

By then I was studying Christian Science, and had learned that, indeed, my mom’s passing was not God’s will, and that God is all-loving and compassionate. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes on page 206 in her seminal work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “God does not cause man to sin, to be sick, or to die.” My mom’s passing had nothing to do with God’s plan or purpose for her, which could be nothing but good and loving, since He is good and is Love itself. As the author of First John tells us, “He [God] first loved us” (4:19). After hearing my mom’s voice, I knew there was no more suffering, and my sorrow disappeared. But I couldn’t explain the whole voice thing. What was that?

As I studied the Bible, I read more stories of people hearing God’s voice—everything from Moses’ encounter with the burning bush in the third chapter of Exodus to Joseph’s dream during Mary’s pregnancy in the first chapter of Matthew. Other examples include God talking to Elijah as he fled the vengeance of Jezebel; Jesus’ transfiguration, when Peter and John heard the voice of God telling them that Jesus was His beloved Son; Paul’s encounter with the voice of Jesus on the road to Damascus; and the Day of Pentecost. The Bible is a remarkable record of God and His angels talking with and communicating to His people. I wanted to experience this. I wanted to hear God’s Word. I wanted it to be loud and clear.

Then I realized that was what I had heard—God’s Word. It was my “Day of Pentecost.” I had heard the voice of God in our garden in a “language” I could understand—my mom’s voice—just as those in the Bible heard God in the way they needed to. I have learned from praying and thinking about this entire experience that although I can no longer see my mom physically, her true being, her spiritual identity, still lives. My mom’s identity continues, for she is an eternal idea of God, made in His image and likeness—as I am and you are.

Christian Science taught me this. It unsnarled the twists and knots of confusion concerning my mom’s passing and of thinking about life from a material perspective. Christian Science opened the door of understanding, enabling me to glimpse life as truly a spiritual existence. All of us live eternally in the Mind that is God, in the spirit of divine Life, in the infinite and eternal consciousness of God. 

Jay Thatcher 
Anchorage, Alaska, US