Enough for all

The Bible includes many accounts of people being sustained by God when their material resources ran dry. The hungry and thirsty Israelites were provided with manna, quail, and water during the Exodus; the exiled Hagar found a well in the wilderness; Elijah and the widow of Zarephath were fed during a drought; another widow’s supply of oil was multiplied to pay her debt. 

The Bible doesn’t relate these stories in order to entertain us with miracles of long ago, but to reassure us that we can count on God being there for us as well. When we open our hearts to trust God’s loving care, we too will see our needs met. 

God, Spirit, omnipotent and omnipresent good, fills all space, so we can never be left wanting.

The spiritual truth I’ve come to grasp is that good is not limited because God is not limited. Referring to the children of Israel during their journey to the Promised Land, Mary Baker Eddy says, “There is to-day danger of repeating the offence of the Jews by limiting the Holy One of Israel and asking:  ‘Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?’ What cannot God do?” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 135). 

Current news reports tell of a competitive job market and a shortage of workers, unavailable or unaffordable housing, supply chain issues resulting in empty store shelves, and inflation eating away at purchasing power. When we accept this picture as the reality, we could begin to fear that our supply of good will run out. But the spiritual fact is that God, Spirit, omnipotent and omnipresent good, fills all space, so we can never be left wanting. When we turn to the law of God, we can prove that all things are supplied right where and when we need them, because God, infinite Love, is constantly blessing His creation. 

I’ve had several experiences that showed me that there is always an answer to apparent lack when we understand that God’s law provides for every need. The first time I saw this law in action was when I was a child in grade school. Once, when my family couldn’t afford to fill our empty coal bin to heat our home, coal was delivered to our house by mistake. The delivery man apologized and asked my mother if we would mind keeping the coal. She replied that we had no money to pay for it, but he said that was OK, and that we could pay later.  

Later, when my husband was attending a university some distance from where we lived, all our needs were met in wonderful ways. Someone was found to housesit for us so the whole family could accompany my husband, and the rent they paid covered our mortgage payments. We were even able to purchase a piano so our son could continue his piano lessons, and we sold it on the very day we were returning home. 

At another point in his career, my husband felt he should resign from his job for ethical reasons. He hadn’t secured a new position beforehand and was worried about where he was going to work next. I was confident that he could do what was right without fear of negative consequences. The Bible promises, “Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling” (Psalms 91:9, 10).

Within days of turning in his resignation, my husband received a call from an acquaintance regarding a job opening near our childhood home. After applying and being given an interview, within a week my husband was offered the position. This fulfilled our dream of living near his parents and being able to enjoy an area of great natural beauty. 

God doesn’t bless one at another’s expense. 

However, there was very little time for us to find a home and move into it before the new job started. We explained to our real estate agent that the style and condition of the house didn’t matter; we just needed a place with bedrooms for each of our three children and enough space for my small grand piano. We would take a fixer-upper. 

We spent the weekend looking at every house listed, but none of them met our needs. I told my family not to be discouraged and that this wasn’t the final word. I knew that God’s law dictates that supply equals demand; abundance is the natural result of this law in action. I also had faith that God wouldn’t supply employment without also supplying a place for us to live. God never takes
us halfway. 

A line from a hymn helped me hold to this understanding: “Pilgrim on earth, home and heaven are within thee” (P.M., Christian Science Hymnal, No. 278, adapt. © CSBD). To me, this said that home is a spiritual concept, and when we hold this concept in thought, it is expressed in our experience. God’s will of good is “done in earth, as it is in heaven,” as the Lord’s Prayer says (Matthew 6:10).

At church on Sunday morning, a comment from a member, “The place you need needs you,” added to my confidence in a good outcome. That afternoon my in-laws, with whom we were staying, received a phone call. A woman in a nearby town had heard that we were looking for a place. She had a house she wanted to show us. She had not been able to sell it and had just rented it to a family who had been desperate for a home. She had warned them, however, that if she had the opportunity to sell it, she would need to ask them to move. 

This presented a dilemma for us. If we decided to buy the house, a family would be put out. That thought made me uncomfortable, but because of what I knew about God’s omnipresent good, filling all space and blessing impartially, I decided to trust God’s law, reasoning that it doesn’t bless one at another’s expense. We looked at the house, found that it would meet our needs, and agreed to buy. 

My concern over forcing another family out was put away when I remembered that the law of God, which includes infinite supply, blesses without limit. “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need,” Science and Health states (p. 494). We bought the house with full faith that God was meeting the other family’s need as well as ours, and in a short time we were overjoyed to hear that they had found a farm property close to town that was exactly what they wanted for their children. 

Opening our eyes to see spiritually, as Christ Jesus saw, opens the door for good to flow in, as illustrated by another biblical promise: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10). 

I would paraphrase that to say: Bring all your thoughts and desires into the place where good resides—in Spirit—and you will find whatever you need. That’s a law of God.