One of my favorite examples of the Law of Divine Compensation is the life of the twentieth-century artist Henri Matisse. As an old man he had arthritis so severe that he could no longer hold a paintbrush. What a tragedy this could have been for one of the greatest painters who ever lived. He found, however, that he could hold a child’s pair of scissors and use it to cut the construction paper that his grandchildren played with. This led to what art historians consider one of the greatest phases of his work: the Matisse paper cutouts.
Once again we see the difference between form and content. The fact that on the material plane—the realm of form—Matisse’s hands could no longer work as well as they had did not mean that he had any less talent. In the realm of content, nothing had been diminished. Spirit created a way within the realm of form to compensate for diminishment and lack.
God will do His part when we do ours.
So when we look at life from a spiritual perspective, we realize that the loss of our job is not the loss of our calling, and the loss of money is not the loss of our wealth. Our calling and our wealth, at the deepest level, are not of the material plane and therefore cannot be taken away. Do not let the appearance of loss deter you from the realization that what is given of God is given forever.
God has given you your identity, and that cannot be taken away.
God has imbued you with infinite potential, and that cannot be taken away.
God has provided you with the opportunity to change your thinking in any instant, and that cannot be taken away.
God has given you the capacity to love, and that cannot be taken away.
God has entrusted you with the power to live in the light of His abundance in any moment, and that cannot be taken away.
Even if we have only fifty cents, we can praise God and be blessed by that fifty cents. Even when we have a stack of credit card bills and accumulated debt staring us in the face, we can remember that in God all things are possible and that there is no order of difficulty in miracles. We can do the brutally self-honest work of tracing our own part, if any, in making the situation what it is. And we can atone, thus invoking the power of the universe to correct it.
It’s a strong person who refuses to whine, who gets up even when he doesn’t feel like it, puts his best foot forward, and goes to yet another job interview when he’s been rejected by the last five prospective employers. It takes a person of real grace not to blame a spouse, or give in to “I told you so,” or sit around and only cast blame on others for difficult circumstances. And it takes a spiritual seeker to realize that whatever is happening now can be a platform for a miracle.
God will do His part when we do ours. Even if we have only a frayed hat, we can still put our hat on and show up for life. We can pray for a miracle and think miraculously. Abundance and prosperity will show up when we do.
Today’s reality is simply a mirror of yesterday’s thinking. Now, in this moment, standing in the field of miraculous possibility, you can disenthrall yourself from the limits of your past. Nothing binds you except your thoughts; nothing limits you except your fear; and nothing controls you except your beliefs. Think God, think Jesus, think Light, think Love, think whatever form of divinity calls to you. And all else will fall away.