I Was Searching through a pile of gravel along the roadside near our house. I was twelve or thirteen years old at the time and loved rocks. All rocks. I thought I would become a scientist—a geologist—when I grew up.
On that particular afternoon, I had already found several agates when I spotted a smooth, buff-colored pebble. On one side was a perfect fossil. It was revealed in the stone in cross section, and at first I thought it might be the backbone of a small fish. Later, I learned that it was a section of a crinoid stem. This sea lily had lived on the ocean floor many millions of years earlier. To my childhood imagination, it was a wonder. I still have that fossil. I m ... looking at it even now as I write this, and it remains a wonder.
When I was a college student, I did study geology for a couple of years. Yet I also discovered something that was to me infinitely more wonderful than the agates and fossils I had searched for as a boy. I was introduced to the Science of Christ, or Christian Science. Here were the laws of God, governing the universe and governing my own life, from an entirely spiritual basis. I learned that this Science could be understood and then demonstrated with consistency. Understanding and applying God's laws would bring healing, purpose, direction. Understanding divine Truth would unfold goodness, beauty, and grace in human life—even in my love of geology—in ways that would be tangible, lasting, satisfying.
