Over the past decade I have received many benefits through the study and demonstration of Christian Science. And church membership has always been a special blessing to me. In one of the places that I moved to, the nearest branch Church of Christ, Scientist, was sixty-five miles away. Yet at the time I felt a desperate need to attend church. When I finally made up my mind that it was not too far for me to go, I attended church regularly and my life seemed much brighter.
There were several Sundays when there was only one set of car tracks in the middle of the snow-covered highway for the first thirty miles, but I was always in church on time. Even though the road went through a state park where there were no residents, I was never worried; I knew that my desire to attend church was proof of God's unfailing love that draws us to the Christ, Truth. Three times I had car trouble. But each time I was in or very near a town, and help was immediately available. Mrs. Eddy's definition of "Church," which begins (Science and Health, p. 583), "The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle," was being understood and accepted even before I arrived at the church building.
Thus Sunday mornings became adventurous opportunities to see evidence that God is ever with us. From this I have learned that it does not matter if I live sixty-five miles or across the street from my church, or if my car is new or old. The recognition and appreciation of God's presence in my life gets me to church. Without that recognition I would never be there.
