‘Now I trust God more than ever’

Magnus Marthaler

Originally appeared online in the teen series: Your Healings - October 3, 2018

It was another clear, starry night in California, and I had just arrived home after a long walk on the beach with my dad. As I was taking my sweatshirt off, I realized that the necklace I’d been wearing was no longer around my neck. The necklace was a Christian Science military pendant on an old chain and had a lot of sentimental value and meaning.

I searched the house, trying not to feel worried. As I searched, I reminded myself of other situations where I’d had a need—and how whenever I’d trusted God, the right answer had always come. Through my experiences in the Christian Science Sunday School and my own study of Christian Science, I have learned to trust in God as the all-knowing Mind. And I’ve come to recognize God’s guidance because of how clear, reassuring, and direct it is—often pointing me in a direction that I wouldn’t have thought of myself. This guidance can come as inspired ideas or as a God-impelled feeling to do something.

My dad went to pick my sister up from drama practice, and afterward, we felt moved to go back to the beach. During our earlier walk, we’d covered the whole length of the beach—a mile—and I had no idea where on the beach I could have lost the necklace, or if I’d lost it there at all.

Honestly, the situation seemed pretty hopeless, but we continued to listen to God. When I listen to God, I like to imagine all my worried, fearful, or confused thoughts piled on a table, and I mentally push them all off the table. Then I get very still and peaceful inside, knowing that God is communicating directly with me. And when a thought comes to me that is pure and clear, I know that’s God talking, and I keep that thought.

We decided to start walking, looking for the pendant. It is not much bigger than a quarter, and the beach was pitch dark. The only light we had was from our headlamps. We kept looking, but the tide had come up a little, and it was hard to see our footprints from where we’d walked before.

Eventually, I felt a change coming over my thoughts. I started to let go of the feeling that I needed this physical object to be happy. It occurred to me that the necklace was just a symbol for something that would always belong to me. It symbolized my faith in God and my love for Christian Science, which I knew I would have no matter what. I actually felt a release from any fear or worry, or even a feeling of loss. I felt so convinced that because God is good, everything in my life that’s good must be permanent, because it comes from God. Right in that moment, I happened to look down, and there in the center of where my headlamp was shining was my pendant on the chain. It was even glistening a little from the tide that had obviously washed over it but hadn’t washed it away.

To me, the key pieces of this healing were the realization that I could never lose the good that the necklace represented, and the power and specificity of God’s guidance. The Bible says, “God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light” (Psalms 118:27). This experience showed me how true that is. And now I trust God more than ever.

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