At the time, I was not really close to any religion. My wife, a lifelong Christian Scientist, and I were parents of an eighteen-month-old baby girl. We were planning a vacation trip when the baby became ill. Days after a family reunion, our daughter was unable to keep down any food or water. At first, she seemed to want to take food and water, but later she began to refuse them.
Meanwhile, we found out that her cousin, who was the same age and had also been at the picnic, had similar symptoms and had been placed in the hospital. This played on our fear. I asked my wife to call the doctor who had attended our daughter's birth. He prescribed some medicine, but when we tried to give it to her, she kept spitting it out.
The next day our daughter ate
some animal crackers and got up
to play. She was healed.
Since my wife was expecting our second child, I did not want to jeopardize her condition by having her continue to worry about our daughter. She called a Christian Science practitioner she knew, and he came to our house. Meanwhile, I threw away the prescription. The practitioner assured us that our daughter, as the image and likeness of God, couldn't be harmed. He talked about "the scientific statement of being" (see Science and Health, p. 468") and told us what was true of God and of the child's relation to God. He also asked us to study the answer to the question "What is man?" in Science and Health. It begins, "Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness" (p. 475). These truths stayed with me. The practitioner's visit took away any fear I was having about our daughter.
The next day our daughter ate some animal crackers and got up to play. She was healed, and we began our vacation trip.
I began my real journey then as a student of Christian Science. Shortly after our second child was born, my work transferred us to a state with few Christian Science churches or societies. However, our town had one! My wife and I joined the society and The Mother Church, and have been involved in church activities ever since.
I am grateful to Mrs. Eddy for giving us Science and Health, the Christian Science periodicals, and the opportunity to take class instruction.
Santa Clarita, California
