A colleague at work introduced me to Christian Science in 2010 when I was struggling with job challenges. After that, I started regularly attending Sunday church services and Wednesday testimony meetings at a Christian Science Society, and I had many healings through my study of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I also had healing experiences with the prayerful help of a Christian Science practitioner, and I want to share one of them.

From my childhood, I had the habit of sharing daily activities with my mother. In 2010, I moved 130 kilometers from my village to a new city for a job. It was the first time I had been far away from my parents and home. I was one of several paying guests in an apartment (known as a PG) in Chandigarh. Every evening when I came back from work, I would call my parents on the phone and talk about my day. If I could not talk some days because I’d been working late or for any other reason, I felt lonely and sad.

After I was introduced to Christian Science, I came to know that God is our Father-Mother and always with us everywhere. Yet, sometimes the loneliness overwhelmed me. I decided to apply the truths I was learning in this wonderful Science to overcome this feeling. By this time, I’d had many healings—of stomach problems, job issues, relationship difficulties, colds, coughs, fevers, and back pain, to name a few. These inspired me to become a member of the Christian Science Society in Chandigarh and of The Mother Church—The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston. I wanted to learn more about this healing Science, so I applied and was accepted for Primary class instruction, an in-depth course in practicing Christian Science.

One day, as I was discussing the loneliness with a practitioner, she pointed out this passage in Science and Health: “Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with divine Love. When this hour of development comes, even if you cling to a sense of personal joys, spiritual Love will force you to accept what best promotes your growth” (p. 266).

These words along with what I was studying in my Christian Science class helped me see that this was an opportunity for me to know my true relationship to my Father-Mother God. I prayed to understand that if, as the Bible tells us, God, divine Love, fills all space, then where is there space for sadness and loneliness? The answer: nowhere. 

Then one day, most of the girls from my PG went to their homes to celebrate a festival, while the parents of two of the remaining girls came to our PG to give them gifts. Seeing all these things, I felt lonely. However, as I prayed to recognize my completeness in my Father-Mother God and to know that God is Love and that His love is always with us, wherever we are, I felt calm. I got up, went to the market, purchased some ingredients, prepared a sweet dish, and shared it with everyone around my PG.

After that, whenever I felt flooded with homesickness, I prayed, knowing that my Father-Mother God is always with me wherever I am and that all my PG mates were my brothers and sisters. I started enjoying being with everyone. I remember one day when a friend called my cellphone and asked where I was, and I simply replied that I was at my home. The feeling that I was away from home had vanished.

This truth from Science and Health was my constant companion during that time: “Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation” (p. 332). From this truth, I gained conviction and assurance that divine Love is always present and tenderly caring for each and every one of us. In the same way as a little child feels comforted in a mother’s arms, I felt comforted in this truth.

Now I am married, and my husband frequently has to travel for his work. Instead of feeling lonely, I enjoy this time alone with God, doing church work, practicing hymns for my duty as church organist, tending to my tasks at work and at home, and taking time for spiritual study.

I am grateful to our Father-Mother God for this healing. I am also thankful to the Christian Science practitioner for her love and prayerful help and to my Christian Science teacher for class instruction.

Sushma Sharma
Mohali, India