That God has lovingly endowed His children with eternal individuality is a comforting and immensely reassuring fact. Jesus spoke of his everlasting selfhood, which he knew to be eternally loved by the Father, when he said, "Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24).
Yet, however helpful one finds these words, he must come to realize that they are not spoken of mortal man—that, indeed, God is not the creator of mortals. In order wholly to accept such statements, it is essential that one recognize that each individual has a spiritual selfhood, his only real selfhood, which has always dwelt with and in the Father. Spirit alone is his primitive source and his eternal home.
The truth that man has a wholly spiritual, perpetually law-governed individuality is a basic truth taught by Christian Science, a truth upon which healings are wrought. Mrs. Eddy makes this important statement on page 11 of "No and Yes": "Man has perpetual individuality; and God's laws, and their intelligent and harmonious action, constitute his individuality in the Science of Soul."
