On the classroom wall of a school hung a well-worn placard. Successive generations of pupils had read the motto printed on it, but, confided one veteran teacher, as far as she knew, few had paid attention to its message. Its purpose was to encourage tidiness and it read, "A place for everything, and everything in its place."

But one pupil evidently had taken more notice than she or the teacher had realized. She was surprised, a few years later, when she found herself thinking about the text, and as she did so, she realized it reminded her of a spiritual truth she had recently learned through her study of Christian Science: that in God's universe there's a place for everyone, and everyone is in his place.

At the time, this was the opposite of what seemed to be the case in her office. But as she held this spiritual truth in thought, within a few days the situation was corrected. The individual who seemed to be in the wrong position was quite naturally moved to another that suited her much better, and everyone concerned was relieved.

Humanly it doesn't always seem to be the fact that everyone is in his right place. But Christian Science teaches that in truth, in the infinite structure of God's spiritual, eternal kingdom, everyone is invariably established in his God-directed activity, and it shows how this divine fact can be proved in human experience. As Mary Baker Eddy says in her book Retrospection and Introspection, "Each individual must fill his own niche in time and eternity." ^{Ret., p. 70;}

God, divine Principle, governs His universe in harmony, maintaining all that He has created in it intact and in perfect adjustment. There are no mistakes and no misfits in God's kingdom, not one individual is missing and not one is redundant—without a perfect place.

Perfection involves supreme excellence, completeness, and accuracy, and these are qualities unmistakably apparent in true being. Nothing less can represent the one creator, of whom the Psalmist said: "Praise ye the Lord.... The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honourable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever." ^{Ps. 111:1-3;}

The understanding of the perfection of spiritual creation is a powerful healing influence in the human mind and, as a consequence, in human experience. When the Christ, or Truth, is accepted into consciousness, false beliefs give way before it. Its transforming influence is immediately tangible, since outward experience is the subjective state of mortal thought. The true idea of God operates as law in every aspect of the physical realm, adjusting whatever needs adjustment, enlightening, healing, saving, until finally thought is completely spiritualized, and this world is totally transformed through Christ.

Everyone can feel this transforming influence of Truth and experience the satisfying adjustments that take place in human affairs when God's law is understood and honored. If one is apparently a misfit in society, a square peg in a round hole at work, a useless, unwanted person without a place or purpose in the world, the situation can quickly respond to spiritual consciousness, and the harmony that bears witness to divine law be established.

People who understand God's law of harmony, and faithfully fulfill their responsibility to Him in carrying out the work He has given them, will always feel secure and well rewarded. One cannot expect to be commended for work that is done badly or not done at all. Like the unprofitable servant in Christ Jesus' parable—the servant who did not make the best of the one talent his lord had entrusted to him—slothful or disobedient individuals who waste their opportunities may justifiably feel themselves to be cast "into outer darkness"—until they do better.

On the other hand, those who understand that the law of God, divine Principle, assures them of opportunities to fully express the talents He supplies—who are obedient to God and lovingly do their best—know they must enjoy the reward of work well done. They are ready to be made "ruler over many things." ^{See Matt. 25:14-30;}

These faithful servants know that the hatred sometimes felt in human situations—antagonism, prejudice, discrimination, jealousy, and mad ambition—is not only powerless to keep them from taking the place in the world that is right for them at that time, but also powerless to remove them once they are in. They do not feel the need to justify themselves to other people in order to be awarded good positions or to protect the ones they have. They are content to rely on the law of Love, assured that good justifies itself and that dishonesty, mental manipulation, misunderstanding, and mischief are incapable of displacing anyone from a niche that belongs to him under divine law.

God has given to all of His creation their special, individual purpose and place in His grand universe of spiritual ideas—and we can prove it. As the wise Preacher of the Bible has said, "Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him." ^{Eccl. 3:14.}

Naomi Price