It is with a deep sense of gratitude and joy that I recall my first visit to a Christian Science practitioner many years ago, for it was then and there that my journey into the land of Science began. I went with a member of my family who was seeking healing, but I had no thought that I myself needed Science. The practitioner permitted me to stay in the room while she voiced simple, beautiful truths, dwelling especially on the thought of God as Love. I felt as though a light were shining around me, and I left her office with a desire to know more. I purchased a copy of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, also the current Quarterly, and I began to study the weekly Bible Lessons, outlined in the latter. I also began to attend Christian Science church services. I visited the practitioner regularly, for I had many questions to ask her, and I shall always be grateful for her spiritual understanding and guidance, which helped me build on a strong foundation.
On one of these visits I told her of a contemplated operation for our daughter, who was then three years old. My husband and I had spent two years in a middle western city, and when the child was but nine months old a mastoid operation had been performed. Both the doctor and the surgeon told us the condition would never heal until her tonsils were removed, since they were badly diseased. At that time we were about to return to Philadelphia, and we said we would wait and consult our family doctor. He gave the same opinion and made tentative plans for the operation. But I said I must first consult my husband, who was out of the city on a business trip. In the meantime I went to see the practitioner and mentioned the operation. I did not know enough about Christian Science to ask for treatment for our daughter, but the practitioner's vision of man was so clear and her silent denial of this error so potent that the whole question of the operation was simply dropped. No more thought was given to it. The child's healing was complete and has been permanent.
I later realized that on my first visit to the practitioner I had been healed of a sense of resentment. I had never been able to understand why God would permit a baby to suffer, and the truth that God is Love eradicated the belief that He ever had done so.
