Beverly was in the middle of some house cleaning she was doing for us this one day, and happened to say: "You don't seem worried about getting sick. I think about it all the time. I'm scared to death of getting what my father is dying from. Can you give me any help?" We sat down and talked awhile about some of the things Christian Science teaches about God's laws and man's relationship to his heavenly Father. Then I recommended Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, which she got and started reading. She even told a friend about the book. Not long after this, Beverly went on to other work and we lost touch with one another. But a couple of weeks ago, ran into her at the grocery store. Had not seen her for over five years but she was up and at it, the same energetic, loving person, with from what she told me, a very full schedule these days. So, apparently she hadn't succumbed to her father's illness and did not appear to be worried silly about her health.
Just because our grandfather/grandmother/father/mother may have had such and such a disease, there is no reason why you or I should do down before it.
With genetic testing so much in the air, I am grateful that Christian Science rejects material theories of heredity, and accepts the statement attributed to God in the book of Ezekiel: "What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?...Behold, all souls are mine." Ezekiel l8: 2, 4
And of course, Jesus was emphatic as to our spiritual origin: "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." Matthew 23:9 To our everlasting benefit, Jesus demonstrated what a spiritual understanding of man's direct, perfect relationship to God can mean in one's day-to-day life.
Human belief and education to the contrary, material laws of heredity do not actually govern us. In the spiritual reality of being each of us originates not in two people who have an asssortment of defects and deficiencies that can be passed on to helpless offspring, but in God, the divine Father-Mother, who is infinite, perfect Mind and manifests Himself in faultless creation. As Mrs. Eddy points out in the Christian Science textbook on page 63: "In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry."
Whether it's fear of falling victim to a physical or mental hereditary disorder, it can be healed by gaining the correct understanding of our real identity as God's image and likeness. False, material laws are overruled to the exact degree we recognize man's present, Godlike being. Mortal misconceptions cannot stand in the presence of spiritual illumination. As Mrs. Eddy writes: "Heredity is a prolific subject for mortal belief to pin theories upon; but if we learn that nothing is real but the right, we shall have no dangerous inheritances, and fleshly ills will disappear." (S&H, p 228)
