A few years ago it was necessary for me to speak in front of a group a couple of times a week. After I had accepted this new position, I noticed that each day I felt as though I were being choked. There was swelling, and the situation finally reached the point where I could hardly speak. Although the swelling was not noticeable or painful, the silence was! I wondered how I was going to continue.
As a Christian Scientist, I naturally turned to God through prayer to understand better my relation to Him. Because God, good, is the one true cause and man is God's image, His effect, man reflects all good from God. Through prayer and study I came to see more clearly during this time that God expresses Himself in man. Because God is good, man expresses goodness. Because God is omnipresent Life, man reflects the activity of Life. Because God is capable of doing all things, man reflects His capability.
I learned that we need to cultivate a spiritual understanding of man as God's child, His spiritual image and likeness, always reflecting Him. I realized that man cannot be without God, and God cannot be without man; God and man are inseparable. Hence God is expressed in man, and man expresses God's perfection. This understanding strengthened me.
