Free as a sunbeam

M. Jane Watts

Have you ever tried to catch a sunbeam in a box?

Take a box with a lid that comes off and hold it out open so it gets full of sunshine. Now—quick as a wink— pop on the lid and catch the sun inside. Did you do it? Very carefully lift up a corner and look inside. Is it bright and sunny in there? No? Try again. Still no light in that box? Well, look—the sunbeam is playing there on the outside of the box!

It couldn't be trapped and cut off from the sun.

The sunbeam teaches us something about ourselves. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, tells us in the textbook, Science and Health, "As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being."^{Science and Health, p. 361;}

We can't be boxed in any more than the sunbeam. As His spiritual offspring we are "one in being" with God. The Bible tells us, "In him we live, and move, and have our being."^{Acts 17:28;} That's where we really are, safe with our Father-Mother God all the time, and nothing can cut us off from God, good.

Christ Jesus had many opportunities to prove his God-given security. Once when he had been teaching in the synagogue, the people became very upset with him because they didn't understand his pure, Christly message. They even tried to throw him over a cliff and kill him. But his oneness with his Father placed him far above the anger of the crowd. We read, "But he passing through the midst of them went his way."^{Luke 4:30.} Instead of being afraid or angry, he simply walked with God, who is Love, and claimed his perfect oneness with Him. The evil had no power to trap Jesus. The ones who were fooled by evil and listened to it could not even find him. He was free and walked away.

How about you? Do you ever think you're unhappy or hurt or afraid? Some people call it normal for us to have bad experiences along with the good. But Christian Science teaches us that it's normal for us to be always joyous and free.

Sometimes a dark experience might almost convince us we are separated from God. But darkness doesn't turn off the light. Instead light chases away darkness, and we can prove it. We can do what Christ Jesus did—walk with our Father-Mother, infinite Love. This is praying. And our honest prayers are always answered.

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