I WAS SUFFERING from a kidney ailment that I'd had for over ten years and the pain often awakened me in the middle of the night. It was during one of these nights that I switched on my shortwave radio and came across a program on Christian Science. I heard a man describe how he was healed through prayer and I thought, "If he can have a healing, so can I."
I knew that if I could just find this book he'd mentioned—Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy—then I might have a chance for healing and for understanding these spiritual ideas that were all very new to me. After some searching, I found Science and Health in a Christian Science Reading Room in Nairobi. After reading the book through twice I noticed my whole perception beginning to change. The ideas drew me closer to God—I no longer saw Him as far removed from my experience, but as Love and Truth. This was a view of God that I could accept. And as I began to see myself as a reflection of Love and Truth, I became more reliable, more honest in my life.
My consciousness was like a sieve, straining out the untruths and leaving only the good behind. I began to see that this is what was meant by the Christ consciousness within everyone. Mrs. Eddy wrote that the Christ is "the divine image and likeness, dispelling the illusions of the senses ...." Science and Health, p. 332. For the first time, I saw that the Christ is what shows us and proves to us our true selfhood, made in the image and likeness of God. I realized that when our thought is embedded in matter, we cannot see God because our vision is clouded by material sense. But the Christ consciousness clears the mist, brings us closer to God, and thus brings about healing. This idea had a profound effect on me, and as I continued reading the book, I felt a change in my entire being. One day, the kidney problem and the pain I'd dealt with for ten years was just gone.
