The term rain check usually refers to a ticket issued in case a baseball game or other event is canceled because of rain. It can also have another meaning, when we look out the window to see if it’s raining. But there’s an entirely different kind of check that rhymes with these but is far more important and has nothing to do with the weather—a “reign check.”
The word reign is used in a By-Law titled “Daily Prayer” in the Manual of The Mother Church by Mary Baker Eddy: “It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to pray each day: ‘Thy kingdom come;’ let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!” (p. 41).
Recently I looked up reign on Merriam-Webster.com and found this definition: “To be the best or the most powerful or important person or thing—used to say that a quality exists to such a degree in a place or situation that it affects everything about that place or situation.” Clearly, the Manual prayer for reign is much more than a wish for more goodness to be sprinkled into our lives. It is not a matter of relative humidity, but rather absolute humility.
