I am a member of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and I want to share a healing I experienced just from reading the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. 

Before the pandemic, I was losing a lot of weight. I began to feel weak and was more and more exhausted every day. I didn’t want to worry my daughter or my siblings, so I didn’t say anything and continued to pray, recognizing that I live, move, and have my being in God (see Acts 17:28), and that nothing could separate me from God, who is my life—who is Life itself. I clung to spiritual ideas I’ve learned in Christian Science, recognizing that God is All, so it is impossible for there to be any power opposed to God.

Still, my fear grew because of comments from other people: “What happened?” “You’re so thin; are you on a diet?” These observations made me feel quite afraid. One day at church, a friend shared these words from Jeremiah: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (29:11). At that moment, the verse was a balm. It felt like an expression of the loving care of our Father-Mother God.