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Several years ago, on a cold night a couple of weeks before Christmas, I was working the night shift at a convenience store, when I noticed a car backing into the parking spot next to the front door. Several things raised alarms in my mind.

During one of the most challenging times of my life, God’s angels were at hand, proving the truth in the following words of Hymn 9 in the Christian Science Hymnal:  He knows the angels that you need,        And sends them to your side,        To comfort, guard and guide.                      (Violet Hay, © CSBD) In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy defines angels in part as “God’s thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect” ( p.

Several years ago, as I got out of bed one morning and began to walk downstairs, I felt discomfort, slight stiffness, and pain in the area of my ankles and lower legs. The first thought I had was that I should walk around a bit to loosen up; and then the word degenerative came to mind.

We’d known for months that our elder son and his wife, who was pregnant with our first grandchild, were moving to Australia. I thought I was prepared for this, but two days before they left, I was in deep mourning because it felt like another loss in a series of losses after my parents and several dear friends had passed on in recent years.

Late one Saturday night, sitting alone at my desk, I was dreading what I’d agreed to do the next morning—substitute teach a class of teenagers at a Christian Science Sunday School.   I’d done many tough things in life, including covering civil wars as The Christian Science Monitor ’s Africa correspondent and giving speeches to large audiences.

When challenges persist, we should remember that God is consistently the only power—the only cause and effect.

I’ve always linked gratitude to the idea of praising God. In the Bible, the book of Psalms overflows with powerful expressions of glorifying God, divine Love.

I had been spending a lot of time in preparation for the annual meeting of the Christian Science students’ association where I am a member, and was cherishing fresh insights about man’s oneness with his source—God, infinite good. I wanted to keep these ideas close to me, and in my enthusiasm, I decided to take a copy of Mary Baker Eddy’s Prose Works (a compilation of most of her published writings on Christian Science other than her primary work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures ) to my place of employment.

I am so grateful for the timely publications of The Mother Church that meet our specific needs. To me, they are proof that God’s love is communicated in ways that are understandable to each of us.

I awoke dreading the day. I was facing responsibilities that I wasn’t looking forward to.