Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, devotes almost two and a half pages in the Christian Science textbook to answer the question: “What is man?” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 475–477). She states that man is “incapable of sin, sickness, and death.” As she elaborates, we are shown a new view of our identity—the correct view.
Wrapped in the middle of this incredible definition, like a beautiful gift, is a sentence that tells us how Jesus healed: “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals.”
When I was a young girl, this statement enlightened my thought, and, within days, a very ugly wart on my index finger, which had been there for some time, simply vanished. What had happened? I’d had a clear glimpse of the perfection in myself and others. I realized that an ugly growth could not possibly be included in God’s image and likeness. The correct view brought light where darkness had seemed to be. I understood a little better what Jesus meant when he said, “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
