People perceive the name and nature of God differently. Some have a very expansive concept of Deity. For example, Buckminster Fuller, the famous architect, inventor, and engineer, was quoted in The Christian Science Monitor as saying God is "100 percent efficient, eternally unlimited integrity." The article also explains that "because light takes time to travel, nothing is 'simultaneous.' "Mr. Fuller adds, "Except God." ^{Monitor, March 9, 1977 .}

Students of the Bible know Deity not only as God, or Lord, but as Maker, Father, Most High, King, and so on.

Why is it important to see God as having a variety of names? After all, isn't God just God? Of course He is. But He is not limited to just one name or concept.

To open up the possibilities for understanding God more fully, Mrs. Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science, presents some other specific names for Him. They are based on Biblical concepts anyone can discover for himself with research into the Bible.

Mrs. Eddy includes a number of these names in the definition for God in Science and Health. She writes, "God. The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence." ^{Science and Health, p. 587.} How wonderfully expanding it is to think of God in these terms! To see Him as conscious and intelligent Mind, fundamental and fixed Principle, tender and gracious Love, permanent and changeless Life.

As we expand our understanding of God's nature we are better able to understand man's nature—our true nature—as His likeness. When we see Him as infinite good—as limitless and endless—we see how thoroughly He meets human needs.

We can learn more about God's characteristics, too—discover the nature of His action. Here are some examples. We could say that Love comforts, Soul harmonizes, Spirit forms, Truth substantiates, and Life fathers. The nature of what God is, combined with what He does for man, makes for an infinite combination of possibilities. God is universally manifested. God, divine Mind, is limitlessly varied and endless good.

Mrs. Eddy writes: "God is universal; confined to no spot, defined by no dogma, appropriated by no sect. Not more to one than to all, is God demonstrable as divine Life, Truth, and Love; and His people are they that reflect Him—that reflect Love. Again, this infinite Principle, with its universal manifestation, is all that really is or can be; hence God is our Shepherd." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 150.}

Knowing the name or—as that word often implies in the Bible—"nature" of God has a very practical value and powerful healing effect. But the infinite nature of God is not limited to the needs of humanity. That would be putting a fence around God. He has unlimited resources, and as His children we have unlimited opportunity to express Him. We all can express more of Love, Life, and Truth. Even though God meets our human needs, He is not limited to those needs.

By understanding God's nature and infinite characteristics, we find our lives transformed, elevated, and expanded more than we ever thought possible. We all know of people—and you might be one of them yourself—who are doing things now they never dreamed they could do. Perhaps starting a new career, learning to play a musical instrument, or developing a hobby.

Christ Jesus not only overcame people's physical limitations. More important, he expressed the unlimited nature of God. Through his wonderful healing works he showed mankind the boundless nature of God as Love and the indestructible substance of Life. When Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law, who was sick with a fever, she didn't just lie there physically improved. She was impelled to useful activity. Matthew writes: "And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them." ^{Matt. 8:14, 15.}

We can follow Jesus' example and widen our demonstration of true capacity. And as we do, going beyond just one name for God is essential to our progress. We can't think of God in one-dimensional terms. Seeing His unlimited, yet specific, nature and divine characteristics enhances our progress.

The Apostle Paul found a wonderful opportunity to expand the Athenians' concept of God. He had gone to Athens to preach and found an altar dedicated "TO THE UNKNOWN GOD." Paul immediately began to expand their limited sense of God. He told them, "God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands." He continues a few verses later, "For in him we live, and move, and have our being." ^{Acts 17:23, 24, 28.}

What we know about God relates directly to our progress. If God is unknown, inaccessible, distant, how can we find any new possibilities for further good? As we learn to understand what God is, to love Him, to feel the presence of divine Mind informing and enlightening, we discover that we are beginning to express our own real nature, too.

Man is the expression of God. As Spirit's children we have limitless possibilities for good. As we discover the infinite variety of good that God has for us, we expand our understanding and demonstration to include more intelligence, more integrity, more life, more harmony.

Mrs. Eddy writes: "Man is God's image and likeness; whatever is possible to God, is possible to man as God's reflection. Through the transparency of Science we learn this, and receive it: learn that man can fulfil the Scriptures in every instance; that if he open his mouth it shall be filled—not by reason of the schools, or learning, but by the natural ability, that reflection already has bestowed on him, to give utterance to Truth." ^{Mis., p. 183.}

Man always reflects the infinite good that constitutes God. As we bring our understanding into the expanse of God's universal possibilities for good, we'll find more and more of God's nature being expressed in our daily lives.

In the words of a hymn from the Christian Science Hymnal, "The vision infinite to me grows clearer, / I touch the fringes of eternity." ^{Hymnal, No. 64.}