More precious than an antique brooch

This starts out as a “lost and found” scenario, but it doesn’t stay there long. It took place a couple of weeks ago at a bustling indoor market in Stockholm. Hundreds of shoppers roamed kiosks offering everything from exotic cheeses and chocolates to pickled herring and Prinsesstartas (Princess cakes – a traditional Swedish sweet).

As my daughter and I ended our wanderings and worked our way out onto the sidewalk, I realized my cherished pin was gone from my hat. When we inquired and were told there was no Lost and Found, I quickly abandoned hope of finding it in those crowds, and started down the street. Immediately my daughter’s voice rose in determined protest: “But it’s yours!”

With disbelief I watched as she marched inside the vast market and disappeared in the shopping throng. I was even more incredulous when she returned several minutes later holding up the pin triumphantly – with news of having found it on the floor of a crowded chocolate stall.

Before I went to bed that night, I couldn’t help thinking about those three little words from that afternoon: “But it’s yours!” It prompted me to ask myself: Do I claim my spiritual birthright as God’s beloved and cared-for child with the same fervor, the same conviction, the same authority? With every challenge that arises, big or small, that trots across my path, do I claim the safety, innocence, completeness, and joy of my entirely spiritual identity – without equivocating, without doubting?

As if to answer the question, the lines of a hymn instantly came to thought: “My Father has my treasure,/ And He will walk with me” (Anna L. Waring, “Christian Science Hymnal,” No. 148). Right then, this helped align my thought with a renewed sense of gratitude for – and commitment to – this spiritual Science that Mary Baker Eddy discovered more than a century ago.

Mrs. Eddy was led to her groundbreaking discovery by the healings of Jesus, who knew irrevocably that the one and only Father was God, infinite Mind, and that this understanding was our one and only true treasure. In fact, Jesus assures us, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

This is far from a method of thinking a certain way in order to get the “goodies” in life. Instead, it is a deep and heartfelt yearning to stay awake to our spiritual origin, and to embrace our inclusion in this infinite Mind. I smiled, thinking of Eddy’s seminal work, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” – that indeed the healing spiritual laws put forth in this book are the “key” to this treasure.

“The truth uttered and lived by Jesus,” Eddy writes, “who passed on and left to mortals the rich legacy of what he said and did, makes his followers the heirs to his example; but they can neither appreciate nor appropriate his treasures of Truth and Love, until lifted to these by their own growth and experiences” (“Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” p. 165).

On that October day in Sweden, I was given a great gift. A daughter’s perseverance and being reunited with my vintage brooch were indeed sweet. But far greater was the reminder to claim my spiritual birthright, as revealed by Christian Science, with utter and unwavering conviction.

In this way, when the roar of the world attempts to take away my peace, my joy, my sense of an unbreakable connection to God, I can rise up with authority and claim my treasure: “It’s mine!”

And it’s yours, too.