My husband and I were cleaning the basement recently, and as we moved a shelving unit, I saw a man’s black wallet on the floor against the wall. When I picked it up, I recognized my son-in-law’s driver’s license. Although he and our daughter haven’t been married long, he spent a lot of time at our house when they were in high school. Obviously, he had put his wallet on that shelf many years before, and it had fallen back behind and gone unnoticed.
We discovered that the wallet contained quite a bit of money. Then it all came back to us! More than five years ago, our son-in-law had cashed his paycheck—then promptly lost his wallet. We remembered how distraught he was at the time—frantically retracing his steps, but coming up empty-handed. Finally he gave up, sadly believing that the money, driver’s license, and other cards, were gone forever. Finding the wallet taught me a spiritual lesson. Like our son-in-law’s lost cash, I’m sure each one of us has felt at some point that our abundance, health, or even our happiness has gone missing. Maybe we feel like we had these things at one time, but now they’re just out of reach—lost—and we’ve given up on ever seeing them again. But, like the wallet—completely intact, safe, and in fact, right under our noses!—the good in our lives is present here and now, too. Since God is infinite, and good itself, every nook and cranny, in earth and in heaven, are filled with the goodness of God. Your identity, supply, and health are held secure and unscathed in the omnipresence of divine Spirit. The author of the Christian Science textbook, Mary Baker Eddy, supported this fact when she wrote, “It is impossible that man should lose aught that is real, when God is all and eternally his” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 302). Every bit of good that divine Life possesses is eternally ours. It isn’t that God gives us our own health, our own life, or our own supply. God is infinite, and possesses all. Infinity can’t be divided up—a little for you, a little for me. All good, then, is reflected by God’s creation. Just as majestic mountains and statuesque evergreens can be reflected in their entirety on the face of a still mountain lake, so, too, is God’s nature, in all its vast completeness, reflected individually and collectively in His creation—that includes you and me. In another of her books, Mrs. Eddy wrote, “Man is God’s image and likeness; whatever is possible to God, is possible to man as God’s reflection” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 183). Because you are God’s precious likeness, the abundance, which the whole spiritual universe contains, is yours by reflection. It is impossible that something can be missing. Health, which is an expression of God’s completeness, is also yours by reflection. It is impossible that sickness, so unlike God, can penetrate His oneness. Joy, God’s perpetual expression of Himself as Soul, is yours by reflection, too. It is impossible that sorrow can ever have a place in God’s indivisibility. The next time you think anything good about your life or identity has gone missing, remember the found wallet. Your expression of all that God is and has is right there with you—tucked securely in your back pocket!
6 Comments
Linda Valon
5/26/2015 05:13:53 pm
I'm thinking each of us should look deeper into the events of our day to draw our own spiritual lessons. Thank you for sharing this one.
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Annette
5/27/2015 08:41:35 am
I agree! It's the little things that sometimes teach us the most important lessons.
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Jan
5/28/2015 01:11:31 am
I loved reading this!
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Annette
5/28/2015 11:35:05 pm
Thanks!
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Colleen
5/28/2015 10:06:30 pm
Thank you for this beautifully stated proof of the concept of reflection - very helpful. I'm sure your son-in-law was delighted with the return of his wallet, perhaps the "reflected" significance of its ever-presence will mean even more to him than the dollars.
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Annette
5/28/2015 11:35:49 pm
I hope so!
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