New Church Life Sep/Oct 2014 | Page 92

new church life: september/october 2014 of the Academy – in 137 years or on beyond its horizon. The Academy exists between dream and destiny. We have come a long way from the original Cherry Street classrooms in Philadelphia to a sprawling campus in Bryn Athyn, but there are no guarantees about the future. It is up to all of us – administrators, teachers, alumni, parents, students, supporters – to keep faith with the vision and make the dream come true. (BMH) a thankful heart A wise man wrote: If someone gave me a dish of sand and told me there were particles of iron in it, I might look for them with my eyes, and search for them with my clumsy fingers, and be unable to find them. But if I took a magnet and swept it through the sand, it would draw the almost invisible particles to itself and I would see the beauty of the hidden treasure that had been there all along. An unthankful heart, like my clumsy fingers in the sand, fails to discover the goodness, beauty and myriad mercies hidden within the ordinary everyday experiences of our earthly lives. But let a thankful heart sweep through the day, and as the magnet finds the iron in the sand, so will it find in every event some heavenly blessing. Only the iron in the Lord’s sand is gold. (This little parable was adapted from a volume, Emblems, by the New Church scientist and author Leo H. Grindon, published in London in 1869.) (WEO) the grass on your side of the fence is greener than you think There’s something in human nature that causes us to be dissatisfied with what we have and to focus on the downside of our circumstances, while at the same time overestimating the happiness we think th ings beyond our reach would bring us. The truth, if only we can learn to see it, is that the best things for us are those we already have. Is not the Lord in His providence leading us every moment closer to heaven, whatever our worldly circumstances might be? Are there not bits of gold to be found even while plodding through a stretch of dry sand? Setting our hearts on worldly pleasures beyond our reach makes us indifferent to the spiritual gifts we’ve already received, in which case they are as good as lost – leaving us without a treasure on earth or in heaven! Here is something you may have heard a hundred times, but it’s always worth reflecting on anew: “Those who trust in the Divine (know that) all things 478