Right now we are probably quite certain of our own existence. But if we want to understand the Scriptural promise of everlasting life, we must become just as certain that true existence is spiritual and not material. At present, life without beginning or end may seem largely incomprehensible. But through prayer and our faithfulness to the laws of God, thought can be uplifted step by step to perceive spiritual existence—uninterrupted, real, and ever present. We can see beyond material appearances and the limitations that claim to restrict our daily experience.
I asked myself recently, "Am I a human being born so many years ago and living in a material world? Or have I existed, and will I exist, forever? Is the 'me' that eats, gets dressed, and goes to work each day that which lives forever? Or is there another 'me' that is eternal?" The answer came that I have only one identity, which is the perfect, spiritual reflection of God, eternal Mind, the source of all that really is. But human belief incorrectly sees identity as a mind or soul in a material body and in a material universe, separate from divine Mind.
This mortal sense of things, with its limitation, its beginning and ending, can be likened to a dream. When we wake from a dream and perceive its unreality, we leave it behind, and our life goes on unaffected by it. Just so, as we awake from the dream of mortal existence—which we could call the waking dream—we come to see that real, spiritual life, our true, Godlike identity, is completely untouched by the belief called mortality. It is the uplifting of our lives through prayer and the spiritualization of thought that brings the discovery and step-by-step proof that life was never in nor of matter.
Eternal life is usually thought of as a future state, but this is incorrect from the standpoint of divine Science. Preexistence is an essential element of eternal manhood and womanhood. Life does not commence with human conception and birth. Every one of God's ideas—and that means the real nature of each one of us—is forever complete and perfect, regardless of how our lives may appear to human view. We all existed prior to what we call birth, and will continue living always —even after the mortal belief known as death. Those we call our children have always existed in their spiritual completeness, too. They are, and always have been, perfect ideas of Mind, God, and no variation of human events could have changed this, or can ever change it. The book of Jeremiah tells us, "The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee ...." Jer. 1:4, 5.
Conception and birth (the apparent beginning) and death (the apparent end of life) have no place in immortality. Christ Jesus once said of the patriarch who had lived many centuries before him, 'Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad." He said further, referring to the Christ, his spiritual selfhood, "Before Abraham was, I am." John 8:56, 58. Each of us is truly immortal, and we can come to discern this reality. Mary Baker Eddy writes, "Mortals will lose their sense of mortality—disease, sickness, sin, and death— in the proportion that they gain the sense of man's spiritual preexistence as God's child; as the offspring of good, and not of God's opposite,— evil, or a fallen man." Miscellaneous Writings, p. 181.
As we continue to seek an understanding of spiritual existence, it is helpful to consider that as God's idea, man is ever in and with God. Love, joy, happiness, and goodness are forever his as the object of God's love and care. Harmony continues uninterrupted.
We don't have to wait for some future time to know the realness of Spirit. The joys of spiritual existence can be, should be, experienced now. That wonderful prayer given to us by jesus assures us, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.'' Matt. 6:10. And the spiritual interpretation of these words, given in Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, says, "Enable us to know,—as in heaven, so on earth, —God is omnipotent, supreme." Science and Health, p. 17.
Recently I had the opportunity to go hiking with a small group to one of the higher peaks in the Great Dividing Range of eastern Australia. In the final climb the track rose almost a thousand meters in eleven kilometers, and we would be returning by the same route. Much as I wanted to join this activity, all sorts of negative suggestions came my way, such as, "I have never walked twenty-two kilometers in one day before," and "I'm not as young as I used to be." But I put them aside and set forth claiming my real being as the immortal likeness of God.
There was a point early in the climb when the grades were particularly steep and I doubted the wisdom of my actions. But by continuing to claim the ever-presence and everlasting nature of God's goodness and man's immortal nature as His offspring, I was lifted above the sense of material limitation and went forward with joy and freedom. On my return, not only had I found physical freedom, but many doubts and fears that had been weighing me down for some months had dropped away. In fact, this was so obvious that someone I had known for only a couple of days commented, "You are a different person."
Prior to this experience I had been praying about the subject of spiritual existence, and studying and researching it in the Bible and in Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. So I was prepared to renounce and destroy the fear that said right activity could be limited. What an exhilarating day it turned out to be—in all respects! Healing, whether it be of cares and worries, physical disease, or some other belief of limitation, takes place as human consciousness yields to the one Mind, God, and perceives the ever-present reality of spiritual being —of eternal Life.
My mountaintop experience was proof of the present practicality of prayer—prayer that elevated my outlook Spiritward. Release from the many doubts and fears about past and future was a sign of God's ever-presence, clear evidence that we can go forth right now in the certainty of our uninterrupted existence as God's perfect, spiritual idea, man.
