From highest authority

Text passages containing the term “from highest authority” usually relate to ordinances that regulate human affairs. This designation increases the importance of a matter or a process and often expedites its implementation. For example, a verdict reached by one court can only be repealed by a higher court. And to get a commendation from “the highest authority” is a reasonable desire many may have with their projects.

Our son experienced the effects the influence that a “highest authority” can have when he was in high school. Tom was confronted with an assignment to find himself a place for an internship. He was given a certain time frame in which to accomplish this. However, shortly before the deadline, he still had not had any success. In my role as a father, I had made a few suggestions for him to apply at this or that workplace, but his response had been unenthusiastic.

Finally, with hardly any time left, I began to think about the possibility of prayer, as I had learned it in Christian Science. First of all, I started to rethink my role as a father. I literally took a step back mentally and put God in the first place as the Parent of my son. This sense of God as the highest authority must have touched my son in the truest sense of the word, because my trust in knowing the eternal unity of God and man, as His idea, found its reward in a surprising development.

Shortly before the application deadline, our son met a neighbor on the street. Without knowing this, let alone appreciating it, he was talking with one of the most successful architects in the world, who would soon be awarded a prize in New York. 

Our son applied, and the architect referred him to his secretary’s office from where the architect later attended to this matter. A short time later Tom was able to start his internship. Our son had been accepted by a type of “highest authority”!

I literally took a step back mentally and put God in the first place as the Parent of my son.

It’s not presumptuous to declare God’s jurisdiction as the highest authority to which we can turn instantly and directly. The Bible tells us: “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:16, 17 ). If we face a high authority at eye level, it does not appear to be higher than we are anymore. The more we encounter God at eye level, realizing our relationship with Him, the closer He appears to us. We experience Him more tangibly, concretely, palpably. We are not looking anymore for a divine being who is far away, but comprehend that we are at one with Him. When we encounter God in this way, we can rediscover ourselves as the manifestation of God, as God’s expression. 

What does this mean to me—and to you—individually? We can entrust our individual case, whatever it may be, to the allness and goodness of God and see ever new ways in which His goodness is manifested in our lives.

I experienced this one time when I was willing to refrain from the habit of always seeing myself as dependent on human orders. Instead, I was willing to submit to God’s divine authority. 

I was drafted into the German Army to do basic service, although I had expressed my desire to do alternative service as a conscientious objector. So I found myself in a place that I had not voluntarily signed up for. When I described my situation to a Christian Science practitioner, he prayed for me. One night he told me about a similar experience he had heard about. A young man, because of military orders, was going to be kept away from a matter that was important to him. His prayer, which brought a turnaround to the events in his case, was in these words: “God is above the highest rank of the army.” This thought led to a positive course of events for this individual. 

When I thought about the meaning of those words for myself and mentally recognized God as my highest commander, my whole situation changed. I was even released altogether from duty. This happened decades ago. But as I wrote down this account not long ago, Germany had just abolished compulsory military service and had introduced a volunteer force, which created quite a stir. But I had experienced this freedom of choice already a long time ago, and now it is possible for anyone. I gratefully remember these circumstances.

Mary Baker Eddy, who devoted her life to the discovery and founding of Christian Science, writes in one of her letters: “Let us be patient, God governs to-day and tomorrow” (Inspiration for life’s relationships, p. 112, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection). When our affairs are governed by God, the highest authority, we can be certain that they will be carried out in the best way. We apply this when we lay everything we do and are before God and claim the power of His law of goodness and justice for ourselves through prayer. This prayer “… does not return unto us void” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 2 ).