Article July 24, 1976 Issue

Trusting Our Treasures to God

FRANCES M. READER

How often it seems that children, husband or wife, home, friends, church, and perhaps some cherished activity, form our tight, secure little world! They comprise a small sphere of activity we think of as our life—our earthly all. Very gradually sometimes, occasionally very quickly, the human picture changes. Children leave home for school, career, or marriage. They feel quite capable and need no help. Friends move or retire to another location. What has happened to that world we knew and felt so comfortable in? Have our security and happiness left us?

The best time to begin to know where our security, peace, and happiness actually lie is before the changes occur. We can begin at once to do what Mrs. Eddy points us to in Science and Health: "The time for the reappearing of the divine healing is throughout all time; and whosoever layeth his earthly all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ's cup now, and is endued with the spirit and power of Christian healing."^{Science and Health, p. 55;}

Should this process be painful? It could be illustrated by the familiar story of Abraham, who felt impelled to lay his dearly loved son, Isaac, upon an altar as a sacrifice to God. But God's angel or message came to Abraham saying, "Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him."^{Gen. 22:12;} Couldn't we view the sacrifice required of Abraham as the giving up of his adoration of Isaac as a human personality, not the killing of him? He must see Isaac's true individuality as God's son.