Christian Science reveals man's real selfhood to be God's perfect likeness. The Bible provides clear instances of the value of claiming one's true selfhood, especially in moments of emergency. The prodigal son of Christ Jesus' well-loved parable appeared to be steeped in degradation. He had come even to the point of feeding swine—a task which no one of the Master's fellow countrymen would normally deign to accept—and was on the point of starvation. But the divine spark of true selfhood still remained to lighten the darkness of his plight, to waken him to realize his rightful heritage. We read that "when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee" (Luke 15:17, 18).
This was clearly more than a desperate effort at self-preservation, for it included the impulse to repent of his misdeeds and to seek his father's forgiveness. The record surely implies that even in this extremity he remembered that he was still his Father's son, still a child of good; that his real selfhood could be neither abrogated nor forfeited. And so indeed it proved, for he was not only accepted but fully welcomed back to his original status of sonship, to a fuller recognition of his true selfhood, which had never really been lost.
We learn that when the Apostle Peter was thrown into prison, chained day and night to two soldiers, guarded closely by two others, an angel, a guiding and protecting message or messenger from God, came to him in his hour of need, urging him to take steps apparently impossible, which led to the opening of the prison doors and to his speedy release from confinement.
