As a child attending a Christian Science Sunday School, I learned that God is a reliable source of help, but I never knew that the hymns we sang would be prayers when I needed them. I realized this when my dad signed me up for flying lessons the summer that I turned sixteen. He wanted me to learn how to land his small single-engine plane in case of any emergency while I was flying with him.
After a few hours of lessons, the instructor decided I was ready to solo, which meant that I would take off alone, fly around the course I had learned, and then line up for landing on the same runway from which I had taken off. I was confident I could do it until I was up in the air and suddenly realized that I had to land the plane myself.
At that moment I panicked; however, these lines from a hymn by Mary Baker Eddy came to me: “Thou Love that guards the nestling’s faltering flight! / Keep Thou my child on upward wing tonight” (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 207). These words helped me feel that the presence of God—divine Love—was with me; and the moment of panic passed. I hadn’t even needed to tell myself to pray. I was able to make a perfect landing, and soon after completed two more required landings.
