Do not wait for pain to bring you to thoughts of Me. You don't need pain. I am what you need, I am all you need, for when you have Me you have everything. You may not have all your worldly desires all of the time, but you have all of Me. Having Me is knowing that you share My light, that it is for you. Truly, when you know Me, and you know you are in My light, there is not much else you desire. When you find Me, you really have found something that you care about and never tire of. That is when you get on your knees, not in prayer but in gratitude for your share in the Kingdom.

Gratitude does not make you weak. It makes you strong. It takes strength to get on your knees. It takes strength to surrender. Indeed, it is strength you surrender to. Surrender is how you collect all the wealth of consciousness I have given you. Surrender is when you say, as I do, "I AM." We intone together.

What else would you do but fall on your knees when you found a great treasure before you? If you found a chest of jewels, you would kneel to open it. You would not think you were bowing down to the treasure. You would be bending to open it.

And so you bend to Me so that you may reach Me.

The bending I speak of is, of course, metaphoric. You rise to My height. You stand taller than ever before, even with bended knee, for I straighten you. Accept your magnificence.

You think I must be exaggerating, for you do not understand how on earth a mere mortal such as you can be magnificent. You think I must be crazy to say you are magnificent, crazier still to believe it. But, My beloveds, when you have everything I bequeath you, what else can you be but magnificent? Are you not My singular treasure on earth?

I look at every one of My treasures. I run My fingers through each jewel. I delight in them. I pick up each one every day, and I do not find even one wanting — lacking is what I mean. I do find you wanting, but you don't quite believe that it is I you want.

Part of you thinks: "What good is God after all? What can He do? True, He created existence, but, after that, what has He been doing? He rested, and I don't recall that it said He got up again. Where has He been? Why hasn't He done all the things I would have him do?"

But I have been ahead of you. All the time I have been paving the way for you. Holy is My Name, and beautiful are you, made in My image, named after Me. I imaged you, and I gave you all My gifts. Only you run around without picking them up. They are strewn before you and on all sides of you. You are in such a hurry to get somewhere that you don't see what is right under your feet, let alone what is in Heaven.

Fortunately, I see for both of Us, for all of Us — the all that is One with Me. I see Oneness. That is all I can see. That is all I am capable of, and I lead you to My sight. I see beneath all the masks. Despair is one of your masks. It is not you. It is a figment of your imagination.

But I am not a figment. I am Wholeness, and you are Wholeness, and together We are One Beautiful Being of Light.