It was a beautiful California spring day, and all the kids on the block were having a great time playing baseball. All except Randy. He was usually the leader when it came to sports, but today he didn't feel like playing baseball. Or any other game. Last week Mom had gone away on a jetliner in a big hurry. Now she was home again, and had told Randy and his brothers and sister that Grand-Dad had passed away.

Randy felt terribly upset. What happened to someone who passed on? He had never thought about life and death before, and it bothered him a lot. Besides, Grand-Dad Dad always been so full of fun. He knew so many funny songs to make children laugh. Randy didn't like thinking that Grand-Dad wouldn't be coming to California to visit anymore.

Randy just sat staring at the wall. Mom asked gently, "What's the matter? Why don't you want to play with the others?"

"I'm awfully worried about Grand-Dad. I wish I could see him. I know he's passed on, but that isn't the end of him. But I wish I knew if he's all right."

Just a few months earlier Mom had enrolled Randy and his brothers and their sister Linda in a Christian Science Sunday School. They were just beginning to learn that God is Life. It was all so new.

Mom said, "Randy, we haven't been studying Christian Science very long, but I know it has the answer to every problem. Why don't you go talk to Aunt Helen about this?" (Aunt Helen was a good friend of the family who had invited them to come to the Christian Science church.)

Randy phoned Aunt Helen, and she said to come right over to her house. She gave him some milk and cookies. And they sat down on the living room couch together.

"What do you want to talk about, Randy?" she asked. Randy's eyes filled with tears and he told her about Grand-Dad.

"Look out the window. What do you see?" she asked.

"Well, mostly I see the ocean," he answered.

"That's right. And your dad has a boat he likes to sail on that ocean, doesn't he?"

Randy nodded. "Just about every weekend."

"Suppose you were watching him sail his boat, and after a while it sailed off toward the horizon and disappeared. Would you be worried about him?"

Randy laughed. "Why would I be worried about him? He's the best sailor in the whole world!"

"But wouldn't you be afraid that when you couldn't see it the boat would fall right off of the earth?"

Now Randy really laughed! "Oh, Aunt Helen! You know the earth is round and that old ocean goes on and on and on, even when we can't see it!"

"How can you be so sure, Randy?"

"Well, because Christopher Columbus proved it when he sailed to America!"

"Oh," smiled Aunt Helen, "so you wouldn't be frightened, because you have proof that the earth is round. You wouldn't worry about your dad because you would know that he was perfectly safe even if you couldn't see him.

"Well, when Christ Jesus appeared to his disciples after the crucifixion, he proved that there isn't any death for the real man that God made.

"You remember hearing about the resurrection in Sunday School? So, even though you can't see Grand-Dad, you can feel exactly the same way about him as you would about your father and his boat. You can't see him, but you know that he's going right on in God's loving care. So what is there to worry about?"

Randy thought about this. "You mean—like my Sunday School teacher says—'God is always with us'?"

"Exactly. And I'm sure you've learned the Beatitudes in Sunday School. Do you remember the second one, where Jesus says, 'Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted'? ^{Matt. 5:4;} It really is comforting, isn't it, to know that you truly have no reason to be sad, since God is always with Grand-Dad just as much as He is with you?"

Randy agreed. "So you mean that he's still happy, and having fun, and making people laugh?"

Aunt Helen smiled. "Well, Mary Baker Eddy says in Science and Health, 'Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God.' ^{Science and Health, p. 516.} So we know that Grand-Dad is always expressing joy, because this is a Godlike quality."

Randy grinned.

"Boy, that's great!" he said thoughtfully. "Do I feel great to know the truth about Grand-Dad—to know he's with God, just like we are!"