Editorial November 19, 2018 Issue

The magnifying and multiplying effect of our gratitude

Kim Crooks Korinek

I’m profoundly grateful for acts of kindness from a church I never knew. During the Great Depression of the 1930s in the United States, this church placed copies of this magazine in the railroad station nearby (which was one way ideas were shared in those pre-internet times).

One day, my grandfather came to the railway station intending to take his own life. Having sustained a severe head injury that made it difficult for him to work, he was in desperate straits. As he recounted it, after two years of struggle, and with doctors giving him little hope for recovery, he felt that throwing himself in front of a train would be the best solution for everyone. One train came and left. He lost his nerve. While waiting for a second train, he picked out a magazine from the distribution box and read it. One of the articles that deeply moved him pointed out that God is Love, and in a single moment he went from hopelessness to hope. That one idea—bold, startling, and welcomed—broke through the depressing narrative of those years of suffering, and he grasped that a whole new way of living, free of anguish, was possible. He walked out of that train station with the magazine in hand and directly shared the article with his wife. Soon they both started visiting the local Church of Christ, Scientist, regularly.

Today, I’m still so grateful to the people who welcomed my grandparents into that church. And I’m also grateful to the Christian Science practitioner—someone who helps others through prayer—who answered my grandfather’s many questions and helped him experience a full recovery from the head injury. The unselfishness of all of these individuals must have come from a place of overflowing gratitude to God, and their willingness to share what they loved changed the trajectory of our family. My own practice of Christian Science has brought physical healings, character transformation, and countless times of comfort, guidance, and peace that have in turn enabled me to help others.

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Bible Lens

Bible Lens—November 19–25, 2018