I was packed, sitting in an empty house at 3 p.m. with nothing but a sleeping bag and a telephone. All my earthly possessions were disappearing down the street in the moving van. I was to close on the sale of my house at nine o'clock the next morning, wire the money to the owners of the new house I had purchased in the new city, and then be on my way to a new community and a new way of life.

At 4 p.m., my attorney called to tell me that the deal was off, the people who were to buy my house had backed out of the sale, and that was that! Although I made the necessary calls to have my furniture rerouted to be placed in storage, I was dumbfounded. "Why, God?" I found myself asking.

I reached into my overnight bag and took out copies of the Bible and Science and Health to read the Bible Lesson found in the Christian Science Quarterly. Psalms said, "Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth" (86:11). Science and Health pointed out, "When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs our path" (p. 254). Trusting God's direction, I telephoned an acquaintance whom I knew to be looking for an apartment. She agreed to rent my house. Then I calmly told myself that I would go to the new city as planned, and continue to let God guide me.

Although it took weeks to find a mortgage company to finance the new house, I continued to pray and trust God's guidance. When a small bank offered me a loan at the worst terms and rates imaginable, I accepted, so that the sellers of my new house could move. Within a few weeks I was able to obtain a new mortgage at lower rates with payments I could afford. My new home was established!

More wonderful, though, than the above material demonstration, was that I had a significant physical healing. The house was in a rural area, surrounded by many insects. Clearing the land around my house left me with painful sores over most of my body. Sleep was impossible, and night after night I lay awake thinking how poor Job must have felt in his agony. This went on for several weeks. One night, as I was praying for relief, my eyes fell on these words in Science and Health: "All of God's creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible" (p. 514). The insects that caused this discomfort seemed anything but "harmless," or "useful," and I was certainly wishing them not to be "indestructible." As I searched further to see what Mrs. Eddy could have meant, I began to understand that every expression of life is actually God's creation. Complete healing came when I read, "That which He creates is good, and He makes all that is made" (ibid., p. 472). I was determined that I would not dishonor God by claiming that the good He created could harm me in any way.

The troubling sores that had left me sleepless and in constand discomfort immediately became less troubling. I went peacefully to sleep for the first time in many nights. The next morning many of the sores were practically gone; by nightfall they had disappeared.

That was three years ago, and I have not since been bothered. The insects did not disappear—just the thought that they could somehow harm me.

I am so grateful for Christian Science and the wonderful impact it has had on my life. Every morning when I first open my eyes, I look around at my new home and new circumstances; I think how impossible it had seemed to me, not so long ago, that the tangled mess I faced would ever be resolved. And I promise God to share with the world the wonderment of following Christian Science and the peace that comes from letting Truth unfold good in one's life.

Virginia Petersen
Archer, Florida