I grew up in the Deep South of the United States, during a time when segregation made it nearly impossible to know anyone outside of their own race. I was also aware of the prevailing belief that not everyone was loved by God. But one hot, dusty day when I was a child, I got to experience something different.
My mother was driving my sister and me to meet a friend in another town. Cars had no seat belts in those days, and I began to climb from the back seat to the front, when my mother saw an oncoming car heading for us. My mother swerved, and our car rolled off into a ravine. My sister and I were thrown out of the car, then pinned underneath it. Both my mother and sister were unconscious, but my mother was awakened by my screams. She climbed out of the steep ravine up to the highway and waved down some drivers. They stopped, lifted the car from my sister and me, pulled us out, and carried us to safety.
One of the cars was on the way to a hospital, and the driver—whose wife was due to deliver a baby—volunteered to take us with them. I was no longer screaming or crying but said aloud to my mother, “God took care of us, didn’t He?” She said yes, and the kind people who had taken us into their car agreed. We graciously thanked them for their kindness.
It was at this point that I knew God’s care and human kindness could never be limited or determined by race. I saw, at my young age, that these people weren’t really different from me and my family just because they were white. They just looked different.
The only injuries were my mother’s brush with poison ivy from the ravine and one stitch needed in my right thumb. My sister awoke in the hospital without any injury. We were very blessed.
I was not aware at the time that my mother was a Christian Scientist, but I later learned that she and my father had met a Christian Science chaplain in Germany while my father was stationed there during the Second World War, and they began to study Christian Science. Christian Science had blessed our family in many ways before I was conscious of the fact.
My mother continued to practice Christian Science throughout her life. However, I attended a parochial school, where I also regularly attended mass. As I grew up and moved north to a large metropolitan area, I fell away from religion completely, feeling I still hadn’t found satisfactory answers in my quest for truth. But whenever I went home to visit my family, my mother persistently asked me to attend a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, with her. Because of the hard times I was facing—including financial problems and racial barriers, as well as unanswered spiritual and moral questions—my mother was concerned. So, one Sunday I decided to give in and attend church with her.
I knew God’s care and human kindness could never be limited or determined by race.
The uplift I felt from attending that one service was immediate. When I returned to the city where I lived, I found the Christian Science branch church that would be closest for me to attend. And attending services there, I found the teachings of Christian Science to be more than satisfactory in answering my questions. My needs began to be met, and soon I was living a new life.
For instance, I had been feeling very dejected because I could not find a suitable apartment after I moved to the city, but through prayer, I began to be hopeful that there was a place for me. One day my manager at work asked me how I was getting along with apartment hunting. When I told her I wasn’t doing so well, she said she had a friend who needed a tenant because he was holding two apartment leases. I was a little doubtful because of possible racial issues, but the deal went right through without a hitch, and I very soon had a place to live.
After a while, the company I worked for decided to move out of the state and invited me to move with them. I declined the offer, as I was pursuing a career in the arts, and my plan was to remain in the city and do temporary work while I looked for performance opportunities. I felt it would be easy for me to find work.
God is a God of justice, and we need never fear that His love is not adequate to meet any of our needs.
However, when my funds began to get dangerously low, I panicked. The temporary jobs were not rolling in as I had thought they would. One day I received a call from the landlord because I was late with paying my rent. I had to do something fast. I decided to trust God. After I hung up the phone I said to myself, “I don’t have to worry. I’m a Christian Scientist.” I knew that my reliance on God and Christian Science would meet my needs, and I was no longer fearful. Studying passages from the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, gave me a new perspective on love and life, assuring me that God—who is divine Love and Life—meets all our needs. Science and Health says, “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need” (p. 494).
A few days later an old friend called to invite me to a play she was in. I had not heard from her for a very long time. When she asked how I was doing, I told her about my need for a job. She said that her place of employment was looking for help and would hire me on the spot if I applied for the position. I did so and started working—and was issued a paycheck—that very day. I had no more financial problems from then on.
Once I received an audition notice to join a theater group. When I was ready to start the audition, I saw the director make a face to his associate. I felt they had already judged me as inferior and had decided I was not the right race for the part I was auditioning for. But I was not moved. As with other challenges, I had the ideas I was learning from Christian Science to help me know everything I needed to know. I was asked to join the theater group.
Without Christian Science, I don’t know how I would have found a place to live, a job that paid well, safety from wrong decisions, and the joy of performing successfully many, many times.
I had been warned about discrimination and how hard it would be to work and live in the large city on my own. But God is a God of justice, and we need never fear that His love is not adequate to meet any of our needs. We can all keep going forward, knowing that “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
