In high school, while other teenagers were falling in love with their boyfriends and girlfriends, I was falling in love with The Christian Science Journal and the Christian Science Sentinel. I even kept a special notebook, where I pasted in my favorite poems, articles, and insights.
At the most basic level, what interacting with Mary Baker Eddy’s revolutionary publications did for me as a young person was help me in my own budding practice of Christian Science. But deeper than that was this powerful takeaway: that in reading and praying with the periodicals, I could be an active member in a worldwide community of healers. Through my interactions with these magazines, I glimpsed something of the universal relevance of Christian Science, and that all, regardless of age, could see its effects in their lives.
I still have that notebook—a poignant, miniature record of the permanent record of Truth that captured a teenager’s heart with the promise of how very real God is. It reminds me that the same spirit of Truth still imbues the pages and webpages of each of these publications today, and can speak to children and teens right where they are, in a way they can understand. And that they can be inspired, as I was, to join the conversation—through reading, practicing, and even contributing their own accounts of healing.
