There is a journey that each of us must take to spiritual maturity concerning the things of God. Paul wrote, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." ^{I Cor. 13:11.}

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy points out aspects of spiritual immaturity in the second part of her Glossary definition of "children": "Sensual and mortal beliefs; counterfeits of creation, whose better originals are God's thoughts, not in embryo, but in maturity; material suppositions of life, substance, and intelligence, opposed to the Science of being." ^{Science and Health, p. 583.}

Surely the characteristics listed here are things we are striving to "put away." In fact, all ungodlike thinking is really "childish." Immature, limited thought does not belong to the real man of God's creating; but such seems to be part of us as long as we allow ourselves to remain in the false childhood of "mortal beliefs" and "material suppositions."

We get out of this childhood through growth—consciously learning to put away the characteristics of material thinking and to live and express God's qualities. This demands effort, for the human mind seems to resist it. Growth often requires a mighty wrestling with some of the more entrenched false claims about ourselves that would bind us to materialism—a wrestling such as Jacob went through at Peniel before his name was changed to Israel. ^{See Gen. 32.}

Giving the definition of "children of Israel," Mrs. Eddy writes, "The representatives of Soul, not corporeal sense; the offspring of Spirit, who, having wrestled with error, sin, and sense, are governed by divine Science; some of the ideas of God beheld as men, casting out error and healing the sick; Christ's offspring." ^{Science and Health, p. 583.}

The children of Israel spent many years in the wilderness. In Science and Health "wilderness" is defined as" ... the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence." ^{Ibid., p. 597.} One function of a vestibule is to act as a protected passage. The children of Israel were often protected by God in their long passage from a materialistic sense of life to a more spiritual discernment of the nature of God and man. So are we all protected in our spiritual growth, our journey to an ever greater spiritual maturity.

Human thought progresses upward by degrees—from the material, through the moral, to the spiritual. In our present transitional stage of spiritual growth we sometimes have to struggle hard to "put away childish things"—false characteristics that claim to have been long with us. At other times we may make a sudden, rapid advance toward greater spiritual maturity as truth blossoms in our thought. In either case, we can trust that God is always guiding us, caring for us, watching over us in our protected passage from material thinking into the promised land of complete spiritual understanding.

That promised land is the full realization of what we truly are as children of God. The first part of the definition of "children" in Science and Health states: "The spiritual thoughts and representatives of Life, Truth, and Love." ^{Ibid., p. 582.} We find ourselves more as these "representatives"—more as the "better originals" referred to in the second half of the definition—when we see the real man of God, expressing Spirit's qualities, fully and completely.

Our true identity as children of God includes all of God's qualities. In truth, we have now the qualities that are authentically childlike, such as innocence and purity; and we can distinguish clearly between these spiritual, childlike qualities and any childish characteristics, such as sensualism, selfishness, and resistance to God's will.

When childish characteristics truly fall away, we need feel no guilt or self-condemnation. To remember the passage, "When I was a child ... I thought as a child," gives us the needed tenderness with ourselves and our own past. As a measure of corporeal sense falls behind us, we can let it go easily, rejoicing in our growing spiritual maturity and pressing forward toward the greater growth yet to come. And we will never rashly condemn anyone for what we may see as spiritual immaturity, any more than we would condemn a human child for being only as old as he is. Growth is inevitable, even if it is through suffering. We silently nourish spiritual growth by seeing each one's full stature in reality as the mature child of God.

Spiritual progress spreads a glow over our whole life. We begin to grasp what Paul meant when he referred to our all coming "in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." ^{Eph. 4:13.} Christ Jesus, through his life and teachings, has presented the grand stature of man's full spiritual maturity; and our perception of his mission inspires us to redouble our efforts to grow into this maturity. And as we grow, we inevitably, spontaneously, reach out to assist and encourage others who are on the same path. We may well find ourselves "casting out error and healing the sick."

What a glorious experience: for each one of us to take God's hand and proceed on this journey from the childishness of material thinking to man's full stature as a mature, spiritual representative of God.