Patience is often associated merely with the passage of time. We might feel, for instance, that being patient means waiting for God to do something, or enduring suffering, or biding our time until some process is completed. Through the study of Christian Science, we find there is much more to patience. We find that in its highest sense it's an active, powerful quality from God, divine Mind. It's not an uncertain waiting, but expresses a confident stand for God's impeccable care and ability to heal. Patience allows us to feel genuine, spiritual peace and fulfillment.
God, divine Love, knows His creation to be, even now, what He has created it to be—spiritual, perfect, harmonious, intact. Man, God's spiritual expression, never knows a moment when health, joy, happiness, and peace are not his. He is never in danger, never anxious or afraid, never discouraged or disappointed. God's image and likeness reflects the perfection of God. Man knows no evil, no false, carnal mind. Truly, the real, spiritual man is God's own manifestation of Himself. In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy states, "To infinite, ever-present Love, all is Love, and there is no error, no sin, sickness, nor death." Science and Health, p. 567.
So, why is patience necessary if God's spiritual perfection is effortlessly revealed in man, right now? Because material sense doesn't discern this wonderful fact. It accepts a counterfeit, material concept of existence. The carnal mind (or mortal mind, as Christian Science terms it) suggests that life is material and far from perfect—that it includes hardships to be endured. Christ Jesus referred to this so-called mind when he spoke of the devil as "a liar, and the father of it." John 8:44. God, the only true Mind, knows that spiritual perfection is right now! He knows man as His expression, wholly satisfied. He knows man includes no evil or debilitating conditions.
