My mother passed on shortly after my birth, and as I had no opportunity to know her, I experienced no sense of loss in my early years. However, as time passed, there were innumerable occasions when I thought about her and wondered what kind of relationship we would have had, particularly when I saw the close, warm relationships my friends had with their mothers. My father seldom spoke of her. (I realized later that he was still grieving and that this had kept him silent.)

I longed to know someone who had known my mother well and who would share their friendship with me. But this did not happen. The longing to know about her increased as time passed, and I began to feel a deep sense of loss.

I had been raised in an orthodox religion, but it had never taken hold. The church I attended seemed very rigid and ritualistic, viewing God as a judgmental, tyrannical, and fearsome father. The motherhood of God was not considered. I finally decided that church was not for me.

However, some years later, after I had a family of my own, I became acquainted with a Christian Scientist who so lived his faith that I wanted to investigate this teaching. Eventually I joined The Mother Church and a branch church, and for almost twenty years now Christian Science has met my needs for supply, the resolution of relationship difficulties, employment, and physical healing.

During my early study of Christian Science, I began to perceive God as Mother, something I had never done before. Gradually I was released from missing a human mother. It no longer seemed necessary for me to find those who had known her. I no longer wondered what she had been like. And I no longer needed to keep a book of photographs and mementos that I had held so dear; I gladly sent these on to a relative who wanted them. The sense of loss has disappeared, and when I think of my mother, it is only with love and gratitude for her.

The Bible states (Joel 2:25), "I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten," and this has been proved in my life. At one point a church member (she and my mother would have been contemporaries) and I began a friendship that has grown beautifully over the years. It is a very rewarding relationship.

Christian Science has restored to me a sense of motherhood that I could never have imagined. Mrs. Eddy makes numerous references in her writings to our Father-Mother God. Especially enlightening to me has been this statement in Science and Health (p. 332): "Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation."

How grateful I am that Mrs. Eddy so unselfishly shared with all mankind the infinite blessings of Christian Science, including her enlarged and enriched sense of God as Mother. How beautifully Christian Science shows us that God does meet every human need, and in ways beyond imagining.

PATRICIA M. DUNIWAY
Menlo Park, California