I grew up learning that God is always at hand. In childhood, my health needs were met by the prayers of my parents, occasionally with the help of a Christian Science practitioner. Christian Science has been in my family for four generations.
Eventually I discovered that, while I often enjoyed the advantages of growing up in a loving and healing atmosphere, provided by parents who knew about and trusted in a loving God, I had not gained any sort of spiritual jump-start through heredity! As I got out on my own, despite having some healings, I often felt that the effectiveness of my own prayer was erratic. In particular I began to question whether I could, or should, trust prayer in an emergency—especially with the advent of some of the technically advanced medical procedures gaining popularity.
This question became more than theoretical several years ago when I was faced with a life-threatening emergency.
