Recently I uncovered some photographs taken many years ago. Scanning them thoughtfully, I asked myself, "Can it be this once was me?" I remember correcting my grammar to "once was I"; and this "I," this nominal symbol of identity, promptly alerted me to the erroneous trend of my thought. Since Scripture declares man to be made in God's likeness, I must have an unchanging identity, the same now as then.
Still, as I compared the old photos with a recent one, I continued to reflect upon the disparities obvious to the eye. The old photos portrayed an image, I thought, that no longer appeared in the later photo. Was it simply that more youth looked out from the earlier pictures?
This awakened me to what I was seeing. My sight had been focused through the lens of time upon human personality instead of spiritual individuality. I recalled a pertinent passage from the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy: "Material sense does not unfold the facts of existence; but spiritual sense lifts human consciousness into eternal Truth." Science and Health, p. 95; I slowly repeated this statement, letting spiritual sense lift my consciousness into a clearer apprehension of my true spiritual identity.
