Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, “Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul”.
I had an experience recently when this truth was a staff on which to lean at a time when loss seemed very real to me.
One morning, as I was typing an email in my study, I noticed that my wedding ring was missing from my finger. It occurred to me that I might have taken it off when applying some hand cream, but then it dawned on me that I hadn’t needed to use hand cream in several days. At that moment, Mrs. Eddy’s words came so clearly to thought, it was as if they had been spoken to me: “Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul”.
I found myself asking the question: “What does your wedding ring symbolise? What does it represent?” The answer was clear: “My gold wedding band represents commitment, love, loyalty, companionship, affection, friendship, fidelity”. I knew that these spiritual qualities could never be lost, even if the gold ring symbolising those qualities was to go missing. It didn’t occur to me to go hunting frantically for the ring...I just knew that either it would be revealed at some point, or that this symbol of love and commitment would be restored to me in one way or another. It felt right to appraise my husband of the situation, and as ever, he responded in a positive and supportive way. With that, I moved forward with my day.
Now, at this point in a testimony about a lost article one would expect to hear that the item in question had been found, and all was well. But not in this case. The wedding ring didn’t surface, but something equally precious unfolded in such a way as to completely eradicate all sense of sadness and loss.
One evening, an angel message just dropped gently into thought: “Go and check your late mother’s jewellery box”. For a moment I couldn’t remember where I had hidden her few bits and pieces of jewellery, but after a while I found the box at the back of a cupboard. As I sifted through the few items of jewellery, I saw a gold wedding band with a little note attached to it in my mother’s handwriting, ensuring that anyone who found the ring would know that it had belonged to my maternal grandmother, who had married around 1910.
As I held the ring in my hand, I just knew in my heart that the symbol of my marriage had been restored to me, in the form of my grandmother’s ring. I wasn’t surprised to find it fitted me perfectly. Over 100 years ago, my grandfather had slipped this ring on my grandmother’s finger, and now it was on my finger. I felt such a warm sense of love for my dear grandmother, knowing that her much- treasured ring would fully recompense the loss of my own wedding ring.
As a much-loved hymn reassures us, “Love is true solace and giveth joy for sorrow, O, in that light, all earthly loss is gain”.