Birth denotes a beginning, the appearance of something previously nonexistent. We do not associate birth with Deity, but are we alert in refusing to accord a natal hour to man, His image and likeness?
Man's spiritual pre-existence is a natural consequence of his coexistence with God, divine Mind. Because Spirit, God, the one and only cause, has always existed, there has never been a time when man, the spiritual effect of this cause, has been without entity, or being. The bosom of the Father is, and forever will be, the abiding place of man. Eternity characterizes Spirit and all its formations.
In "Retrospection and Introspection" its author, Mary Baker Eddy, writes (p. 58): "Life, as defined by Jesus, had no beginning; it was not the result of organization, or infused into matter; it was Spirit." The admission, then, that man has a natal hour is a denial of his spiritual origin and status as God's immortal son, or reflection. Man has always existed, and will forever continue to exist, in Mind as Mind's idea. Birth, maturity, decay are but phases of the mortal dream, which never touches God's idea.
