A television show called Who do you think you are? traces celebrities’ family histories, sometimes going as far back as William the Conqueror and King Henry VIII in the British version. Its popularity hints at our innate desire to know who we are and where we come from.
Some years ago, after I had given up a career of my own and was at home with my first baby, I began to wonder who I was. I had moved away from family and friends and seemed to have lost some of my identity—or so I thought.
Around that time I had become deeply interested in Christian Science. I felt that my answer as to my identity was going to be found in its teachings, so I had set about reading the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. When I reached this passage, I knew I had my answer: “In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry. His origin is not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor does he pass through material conditions prior to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ultimate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the law of his being” (p. 63).
Those words hit me like a sledgehammer! I wasn’t the person I thought I was. I needed to identify myself as God’s offspring—not as a mortal mother or wife, etc. I was God’s child, and I belonged to God. There lay my true family connection, which was not in mortality at all. God was my Father-Mother, and my ancestry, my history, was spiritual. I really rejoiced in this. I knew who I was!
We are capable of rising to appreciate our full stature as a child of God.
This was quite a revelation and overturned a lot of perceptions I had held about myself. For one thing, I now understood that it was not humility to put myself down or feel guilty over past events. For example, I had made a career change that had greatly disappointed my mother. Knowing who I truly, spiritually was gave me confidence and an inner strength I hadn’t known before. I was able to keep on loving and not react to criticism. Tensions abated and our relationship became more harmonious.
As long as we cling to a false material concept of ourselves, we identify ourselves from a skewed point of view, like looking through the wrong end of a telescope. And this becomes the lens through which we see the world.
Looking through the lens of Spirit, though, we see ourselves and our fellow man from a spiritual viewpoint, not according to the outward appearance. In the Bible, the prophet Samuel is sent by God to find a new king among Jesse’s eight sons (see I Samuel 16). Samuel is successful when he follows God’s direction to look on the heart, not on the outward appearance; through spiritual discernment he recognizes David as the one. David had a reputation as “a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person,” and people knew “the Lord is with him.”
Spiritually viewed, we are all anointed by God, for we are all His children. And we are capable of rising to appreciate our full stature as a child of God. It is inspiring to claim this as our spiritual heritage, our true being. And didn’t Jesus say to his disciples, “Ye are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14)?
Why should we doubt this? Our Father-Mother God loves us and wants and causes the very best for His children. God’s infinite plan for each of us is wonderful and wholly good.
Surrendering a mortal sense of ourselves and admitting the truth of our spiritual selfhood is the most unselfish thing we can do!
Science and Health also states, “The admission to one’s self that man is God’s own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea” (p. 90). If we don’t admit and accept our own Godlikeness, how are we going to behold it in another? How are we going to be a transparency for divine Love, which is the healer in all cases, if we don’t admit who we really are?
We may not fully understand who we are spiritually, but we can admit it. The open door of thought admits, welcomes, and embraces the spiritual reality of man. It lets the true man be entertained in our consciousness.
In turn, this enables us to follow Christ Jesus’ instruction, “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12). What a great rule for how to relate to others, as it requires not only kindness and tenderness but seeing others in their true light as children of God. Having regard for our fellow man is an unselfish way of living, and it also speaks volumes about oneself.
As God’s own likeness, man is pure, gentle, intelligent, and wholly good. Everyone is precious, valuable, and treasured by God, the divine source from which we come. There is no condemnation of God’s man, only of the wrong sense of man as mortal. Divine Love looks on the heart and sees its own ideas as spiritual, innocent, and flawless.
I recently had the privilege of visiting Mrs. Eddy’s home in Swampscott, Massachusetts, where she experienced a healing of a severe internal injury in 1866, which in turn led to her discovery of Christian Science. The visit was a humbling experience. It occurred to me that Mrs. Eddy had discovered, or rather uncovered, something that no one else had since Jesus—that man is wholly spiritual. As with David, Mrs. Eddy was called of God to a holy purpose; she would later write, “God had been graciously preparing me during many years for the reception of this final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing” (Science and Health, p. 107).
In her autobiographical Retrospection and Introspection, she ends the chapter on “Marriage and Parentage” with this profound, scientific statement of truth: “God is over all. He alone is our origin, aim, and being. The real man is not of the dust, nor is he ever created through the flesh; for his father and mother are the one Spirit, and his brethren are all the children of one parent, the eternal good” (p. 22).
Opening up thought, surrendering a mortal sense of ourselves (and others), and admitting the truth of our spiritual selfhood is the most unselfish thing we can do! In this way our thought is being constantly prepared step by step to accept and demonstrate who we truly are as God’s beautiful, spiritual offspring.
