‘Couldn’t be better’—already perfect

A dear friend of mine, if you asked him how he was doing any time of the day or night, would frequently say, “Couldn’t be better.” He was an active person and must have had different trials, family matters to attend to, business issues, and world concerns like many of us. How could he reply, as he so often did, with this positive response that he couldn’t be better? Rose-colored glasses? Not too smart? Out of touch?

No. As he put it, it was a constant reminder to himself that in fact, as the beloved and perfect child of God—Father-Mother, divine Love, who is all-governing, all-intelligent, and all-embracing—man can’t be outside God’s infinite love and infinite good. As that man, God’s image and likeness—which is the true being of each of us—we couldn’t be better, because we are eternally perfect.

As God’s image and likeness—which is the true being of each of us—we couldn’t be better, because we are eternally perfect.

This truth reminds me of a well-loved account in the Bible (see II Kings 4:18–37). A Shunammite woman had a precious son, who died on her lap. She went to see Elisha, the prophet. As she went to see him, she was asked, “Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well.” What was she thinking? Her son had just died, and yet she said all was well.

Her trust in Elisha’s ability to invoke God’s power and goodness was so sure that she could answer with clear conviction and assurance that all was well. Elisha did go to her son and raised him from what to the material senses appeared to be death. Had death seemed like a real part of the son’s true, spiritual nature to Elisha, the account would have ended differently.

As Christian Scientists, assurance of well-being doesn’t come from looking through rose-colored glasses, ignorance, or obliviousness to what is going on around us. It is based on the first chapter of Genesis, based on the Christianly scientific truth that God, good, is all and there is none else beside Him, nothing more than God’s allness and goodness, which includes man made in His image and likeness. 

When faced with a challenge, we can consistently, persistently, clearly, and confidently begin with this spiritual fact of the true nature of God and His perfect creation, man. Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Insist vehemently on the great fact which covers the whole ground, that God, Spirit, is all, and that there is none beside Him” (p. 421). When we pray by starting with the truth, beginning rightly, as we listen for God’s healing message, inspiration pours into our thought. We will see more and more clearly how true it is that you and I couldn’t be better because we are already perfect.

During the time I was thinking about and writing this article, I woke one morning feeling not well at all, and found myself nodding off right after lunch, which is very unusual for me. I awoke that afternoon wondering how I was going to go about the rest of my busy day. The thought came to me that I was in the middle of writing an article explaining that in reality, man couldn’t be better—he is forever whole and well. I knew and expected that to begin rightly in thought is the way to experience healing. 

To begin rightly in thought is the way to experience healing.

Eddy states in Science and Health, “The starting-point of divine Science is that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other might nor Mind,—that God is Love, and therefore He is divine Principle” (p. 275). I understood that man can’t be separated from God; can’t be feeling something that God, good, didn’t create; can’t be afraid, as man is embraced forever in infinite Love.

I prayed in this way for a few minutes; and just like that, all symptoms left, freshness and strength were present, and I was completely free.

What a wonderful lesson this is. Right in the midst of what seems to be a storm of any type, our true, spiritual, eternal perfection and oneness with God as His beloved child is the reality—ready for us to realize and demonstrate. We couldn’t be better because all is forever well.

As we understand this, our human experience cannot help but respond to this truth, because the truth is what is true. Science and Health says, “The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,—perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration” (p. 259). As we align our thinking with the truth of “perfect God and perfect man”—with Christ Jesus’ command, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48)—we can see for ourselves that we truly couldn’t be better. Our perfection is a demonstrable fact of being.