A friend who recently had a birthday uttered that all-too-familiar statement about age: "Well, we're not getting any younger, you know." It seemed as though he were stating some kind of law, an inevitability.

I guess I agreed with him at the time, but later, as I began to think about it, the question "why?" kept coming back into thought. Why can't we grow younger instead of older?

I certainly didn't feel older, and I didn't want to "grow older" with someone else. So I reasoned, as Christian Scientists learn to do, that if I understand myself to be God's man, the real, spiritual man, then the only "growing" that I can do is to grow in my understanding of man's unity with God. In truth there is no mortal age nor, for that matter, mortal man.

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal. Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight." ^{Science and Health, p. 246.}

How insidious is this belief of age! Children can hardly wait until they achieve a certain age; and then, as adults, they want to stay a certain age. How often have we heard expressions like "thirty-nine and holding" or "you'll never see twenty-one again." It would seem that after we have passed a certain number of years, all is lost. But that need not be.

Luke wrote about the Master's maturing process this way: "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." ^{Luke 2:52.} Isn't this the true growth? Aren't wisdom and spiritual stature, qualities of God, much more desirable of attainment than mere years—or lack of years? When is one most "in favour with God and man"? How old is Love? Does Truth have good years and bad years? Is Mind limited to the "middle years"?

These synonyms for God—Love, Truth, Mind—as well as Spirit, Soul, Life, Principle, substance, are all reflected by man, the real man, ageless man, the only man there really is. As we realize and demonstrate this, why can't we get "younger"? Mrs. Eddy writes: "I have seen age regain two of the elements it had lost, sight and teeth." ^{Science and Health, p. 247.} Certainly this hints at the possibilities of spiritual renewal.

As we grow closer to God, the source of all wisdom, and as our understanding of God grows, we also stretch our God-given faculties. We express more joy because of our broadening horizons and are more useful to all mankind. Isn't this rewarding progress youthful in character? Isn't this also what youth is eager for—greater depth of understanding and ability? And don't those of retirement years long to be useful and understanding of others—and loved?

Mrs. Eddy once received an invitation to attend the dedication of First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Chicago. The demands of her work prevented her from attending, but she made this observation: "I am quite able to take the trip to your city, and if wisdom lengthens my sum of years to fourscore (already imputed to me), I shall then be even younger and nearer the eternal meridian than now, for the true knowledge and proof of life is in putting off the limitations and putting on the possibilities and permanence of Life." ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 177.}

The process of our gaining greater spiritual understanding is as natural as the leaf turning toward the light and the bud opening to reveal the blossom. Because God is eternal, so is man. And as we apprehend this spiritual fact to a greater and greater degree, aren't we getting younger—expressing more of the vitality, freshness, beauty, and joy of ageless being?