Recently I have been exploring the concept of our God-given innocence. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, has a beautiful poem that begins “Shepherd show me how to go …” (“ ‘Feed My Sheep,’ ” Poems, p. 14). This was my prayer when searching for how to see everyone around me as God’s man. I wanted to be open to God’s view of man and to be able to mentally place the individuals in my life and those I hear about in the news in their correct category as God’s children. The last line of the poem came to me as my answer: “Shepherd, wash them clean.” I understood that God’s child is eternally pure, and that God is responsible for His children’s purity. They are innocent of the ugly labels the world wants to attach to them. We all are.
The opportunity to use these concepts materialized one day in the form of a wild spinner dolphin. She would approach swimmers and rub against them. This was very unusual behavior for a wild dolphin. I had enjoyed extraordinary experiences with these intelligent creatures over the years but had never before touched one. I first saw this dolphin rubbing herself through the legs of another swimmer; then she came and rubbed herself on my legs and arms. I called her “Cuddles,” although other swimmers thought that she was trying to scratch what looked like a disease on her skin. The county posted a sign at the pier warning swimmers to watch out for a dolphin with a skin condition. The next day a friend said that Cuddles’ state had worsened and predicted: “She is not long for this world. You know that we cannot save them all.”
God’s child is eternally pure, and God is responsible for His children’s purity.
