Christian Science Sunday School attendance was one of those things I never really questioned growing up. We went. Nearly every Sunday. With few exceptions. So I was surprised, recently, when a friend asked me, “What—if anything—do you feel you got out of all that rigid church attendance?”
Maybe that’s what attending Sunday School every week seems like. Rigid. A chore. But actually, what I got out of Sunday School made that “dutiful” attendance seem like a gift.
Christian Science Sunday School gave me an abiding sense of God’s unstoppable love for all His children. “God is Love”—those three words were in big letters on the front wall of our Sunday School, and I think they were the first three words I learned to read. During the years I was a Sunday School student, and in the decades after, I’ve continued to see that no matter how hopeless things seem, God’s love is greater, and He’s always shown it to me in tangible, meaningful, healing ways. No matter how loudly fear and doubt have screamed (and they have!), His love breaks through it all. Love has comforted and strengthened me and lifted me higher to know and trust God even more.
