Nothing taken, nothing lost, in God's universe

Divine Love meets every need.

By John Quincy Adams III

Some years ago, while my family and I were traveling to Europe, a flight attendant announced that a young woman had inadvertently left her purse in the restroom. When she returned to retrieve it, her money was gone. The attendant pleaded for the return of the money, promising that no action would be taken. Of course, many of us were concerned, especially when we learned that the young woman was to meet a relative for the first time in an unfamiliar city, had no means to get there, and didn't speak the language.

Time passed with no results. As we neared our destination, it occurred to me that in the universe of God, divine Love, there are no victims, only God's loved and protected creation. An inspired verse from Scripture supports this idea: "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it" (Eccl. 3:14).

Soon, we felt impelled to help this young traveler, a teenager. I appealed to the other passengers to make individual contributions, and they were delighted to help out. The figure collected exceeded the young woman's original amount by a few dollars. This was announced over the speaker system, which brought forth a great burst of shouts and applause. The young woman was deeply grateful.

Later, it was my turn to feel the ever-presence of Love. I had always wanted to own a particular brand of suit. While in Rome I visited the designer's shop, and later, when we left Rome, I had two of these suits in a red travel bag. But when we boarded the departure flight, I suddenly realized I no longer had the bag. Somewhere between going through customs and loading our baggage, my red travel bag, which didn't have my name or address on it, had been misplaced. In a panicked moment I yelled out, in the middle of the plane, that I had lost these suits.

Then immediately, like a stroke of lightning, came the words of the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. ... all is vanity and vexation of spirit" (Eccl. 1:2; 2:17). I smarted from this rebuke to materialism. I was aware that God, divine Spirit, was now taking charge. For the next hour on the plane, I submerged my thought in Spirit, through spiritual study and prayer.

After arriving at our hotel, I withdrew to my bedroom. I needed to understand that God controlled every action of His universe, down to the most minute detail. I affirmed that God's man is the only man, and that he is honest and has all that he needs, directly from God. I felt my thought begin to lift.

I heard muffled conversation through the closed door of the other bedroom. With the calm direction of their mother, who was reading from an Italian translation of an English book, my daughter was repeating sentences in Italian to one of my sons, who would then repeat the same sentence in Italian, only louder, on the telephone. It turned out that a person in the "Lost and Found" was now making a concentrated effort to understand the problem being relayed to him in broken Italian.

It's just not possible to be outside the radius of God's infinite love and care.

After considerable time and effort on the telephone, my son appeared at my door. "Dad," he said, "I think they found your suits!" The following morning at the Geneva airport baggage area, we joyfully reclaimed my red travel bag with the suits intact.

Both of these illustrations of love in action are examples of demonstrating how God actively governs His universe, caring for all of His children's needs. It's just not possible to be outside the radius of God's infinite love and care. The young traveler, my family, and I were helped by this spiritual fact.

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