This is an article that I never thought I would be writing. I have read many articles and testimonies in the Christian Science periodicals about the healing of grief, and I saw my mother healed of grieving in a few hours, after the unexpected passing of my father. Still, until more recent times, my own few experiences with the loss of someone I loved have involved considerable grief. But one cannot continue to grow in love for God and learn the lessons of Christian Science without finding more harmony and a more sure sense of peace in every circumstance.
And so when I learned that a dear, close friend had passed on—one whose motherly qualities were generously expressed to me over many years—I knew that I had two choices. I could either be devastated by the news, or I could begin to see even more clearly her true, unchanging, spiritual nature. As God's spiritual offspring, she was not going or coming anywhere but abiding, as I do, forever in the one Father-Mother God. I chose this second path. Much of my relationship with my friend had been based on our love for and commitment to God. I thought of a statement by Mary Baker Eddy: "Where God is we can meet, and where God is we can never part." The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 131. Understanding this, we grasp the nature of true companioning, which is permanent.
The love that came over me in the days that followed and the spiritual growth I felt left no room for grief or loss. God's blessings cannot be reversed. There were moments of tears, but these were tears of gratitude for the unselfish giving, the steadfastness in Truth, the purity of thought that my friend so beautifully expressed. With fullness of heart, I realized the great love with which God holds all of us—a love so encompassing there is no occasion or space for grieving.
