For some years, battery manufacturers have delighted in demonstrating the durability or "life" of their batteries in television advertisements that show small toys outlasting the competition. Although some batteries may be more durable than others, all will eventually become "dead" batteries because they contain only a limited source of potential energy. Likewise, as long as we subscribe to the theory that we were born material persons through human conception—the erroneous belief of life and intelligence in matter—we have accepted the belief that we were created at a certain point in time and sent forth into this world with limited durability.
It's not very comforting to think of one's life being dependent upon the so-called laws of matter—of heredity, environment, and so forth— claiming the ability to limit our potential. The good news is that this limited sense of life is simply ignorance of God as eternal Life. As we are willing to replace this ignorance with a spiritual understanding of the continuity of Life (and of man's identity as the reflection of eternal Life, or infinite Spirit), we can demonstrate unlimited energy and lasting strength in our daily experience.
Because of his spiritual origin, Christ Jesus saw clearly that man is not born of the flesh. Jesus acknowledged his true, spiritual identity as at one with God, the divine source and continuity of all real being. The master Christian taught that everyone can claim his or her spiritual identity as God's child. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, was divinely inspired to help us better understand our eternal source of being by defining God spiritually in terms of seven Bible-based synonyms—including Soul, Spirit, Life, Love—of which she wrote in Science and Health: "They refer to one absolute God. They are also intended to express the nature, essence, and wholeness of Deity."Science and Health, p. 465.
