Article October 13, 1923 Issue

The Harmonizing of Time and Place

LUCIE HASKELL HILL

A Little Christian Scientist was experiencing his first day at school. At home, the mother was finding it difficult to go about the usual tasks without a feeling of restlessness. The house seemed very empty, and three o'clock very far away! At last, as the clock struck two, the mother started out for the schoolhouse, telling herself that it was as well to be in "good time." She had yet to perceive what "good time" really is!

Shortly after her arrival, the little class came trooping out of the building. But it was only a recess time. As the mother saw the shining face of her little son, she rushed forward, expecting a veritable outburst of joy on his part over seeing his mother again. Instead, the little fellow drew back, and a shade seemed to pass over his face. Looking steadily at his mother, he said quaintly, but very firmly: "What brings you here? Mother, this isn't your place until three o'clock." At first the remark was dismissed as just surprising; but next day, when the mother found herself confronted with the same argument of restlessness, the truth of her son's utterance stood out as a clear, healing statement.

Was the question not in a degree similar to the one propounded centuries ago to those who discontinued their journey in order to return to Jerusalem in search of the child Jesus, and met with the rebuke, "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" The recognition on the part of Jesus that he must be about his Father's business probably carried with it also the realization that those who sought him should be filling their own places and continuing their own lines of endeavor. Their failure to understand his words was due to their inability to perceive the true idea of child and the right concept of relationship. Knowing that God was his Father, and acknowledging only his Father's guidance, Jesus felt no weight of human relationship. Had his earthly parents seen the true sense of relationship as clearly, they would have left him free to be about his Father's business, and neither his work nor their journey would have been interrupted.

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