I grew up in a religious family, regularly attending a Baptist church. Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, was special and memorable as the children carried palms down the center aisle. I loved and studied the Bible regularly, and as a teenager, taught Sunday School.

Christian Science first found me when I was fifteen and studying ballet at a ballet studio. At this time, I was also working in a dancewear store owned and operated by a husband and wife. The wife worked in the store, and one day when we were working together, I remember noticing a Bible and another book with metal markers. Curious, I asked her about them, and she explained that she was a Christian Scientist and that these were the two books (the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy) she used to study the weekly Bible Lesson found in the Christian Science Quarterly. She showed me how to mark passages in both books and use the metal markers to indicate the pages.  

Christian Science first found me when I was fifteen and studying ballet at a ballet studio.

About a week before our dance studio’s production, this woman from the store, who was also my ballet teacher, injured her ankle before she was to perform the lead role in the ballet Sleeping Beauty. I witnessed her quick healing and was so impressed when she was able to dance in toe shoes as scheduled. This made me wonder if her religion had given her that strength and if I should follow this religion. I opened my Bible randomly for an answer and found this from First Corinthians 12: “Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.… For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit” (verses 4, 8, 9). 

I found some satisfaction in this passage and at the time thought it meant that healing ability is bestowed on some people but not everyone. Since I was so active in my Baptist church, I did not feel ready to explore Christian Science further.

A few years later, when I was pursuing my dance career in New York City and working as a waitress, I became friends with a waitress who was a Christian Scientist. I remembered my ballet teacher and realized that now Christian Science was finding me again. Seeing that I had an interest in Christian Science, my friend invited me to attend a Sunday evening service with her, and I gladly went and felt very comfortable there.

Several months later, realizing it was Palm Sunday and recalling fond memories of Sundays in my childhood church, I decided to walk up Park Avenue until I could find a church service. 

As I walked, I remembered that the Church of Christ, Scientist, I had attended with my waitress friend was farther up this avenue. I kept walking, arriving in time for the service there and being welcomed by an usher. I felt the love of that church and knew I had found my church home. 

I witnessed my ballet teacher’s quick healing. 

After the service I asked if I could see the Second Reader, who had read passages from the Bible, to ask if she would be willing to help me understand more of Christian Science. She and I began meeting for weekly discussions, and I took lists of questions. We often reviewed that week’s Bible Lesson, and she explained some unfamiliar terms used in Christian Science. I was beginning to glean the healing essence of Christian Science, modeled after Christ Jesus’ works and based on God, Spirit, being All-in-all. It was also becoming clear to me that God does the healing work and that it wasn’t about personal talent. 

I joined The Mother Church and became an active member at that branch church I’d first visited. The wonderful experience of Christian Science class instruction followed. 

Although my new church affiliation was important to me, I wondered how my parents would feel. But when they visited me in New York, they attended services with me and were supportive, and when they returned home, they began attending a branch Church of Christ, Scientist. Later, when they moved, they joined a local branch church and continued their study of Christian Science for the rest of their lives.

I am so grateful to have a growing understanding of Christian Science, which has brought many healings and blessings into my life. These include healings of burns, cold symptoms, and employment issues; also, a severely cut finger was healed so completely that I was able to play piano the very next day. 

It’s a joy to be a student of Christian Science and to have accepted its healing freedom that is available to all. As Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes on page 227 of Science and Health: “Christian Science raises the standard of liberty and cries: ‘Follow me! Escape from the bondage of sickness, sin, and death!’ Jesus marked out the way. Citizens of the world, accept the ‘glorious liberty of the children of God,’ and be free! This is your divine right.”