Last year I had the experience of taking my first lessons in gliding. The class was told that this would be a practical course from the outset. It was not a course to tell you about flying but to teach you how to fly. So after a short briefing and weather report, we were out on the airfield donning our parachutes and climbing into the gliders. Our instructors were strapped in behind us in a dual-control position.

Next came the important procedure of cockpit drill to make sure that all the equipment was in perfect order. These thorough checks are made every time you take off, so that you have complete confidence in your craft. Finally, the canopy is safely locked, and you give the signal for the tow cable to be fitted for takeoff. After a short run you are airborne and carried up to a height of several thousand feet.

Then the thrilling moment when you release the cable and your glider flies freely! Keeping your eye on the horizon and watching that your way is clear, you soar to find those warm-air thermals, rising currents of air, which enable you to climb. The view that stretches across several counties is magnificent.

What I was learning had some bearing on my study and practice of Christian Science. After all, we are all under "starters' orders" as Christians to go out and practice what we have been taught. And I found there were other related lessons as well. Christ Jesus, for example, made it very clear to his disciples that he expected them to do as he did. He himself uniquely illustrated the freedom from limitation that comes into human experience as life is lived in constant relation to God, Spirit.

How can we begin to attain this freedom? We can pray faithfully to understand our relationship to God as His loved sons and daughters, and desire to serve Him better and do His will. Our ground rules are the timeless truths of the Bible; the Ten Commandments and Christ Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. As we live by these precepts we gain a solid conviction of God's law upholding us. And as we pray, we feel the assurance of His presence.

The Psalmist felt this presence so tangibly he wrote: "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there .... If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." ^{Ps. 139:8–10.}

Sometimes the weights that would tether us to earth seem very real. Perhaps difficult human relationships, burdensome responsibilities, or fear and sickness make our feet drag. But we can be encouraged that others before us have broken free from the material basis of thought that fosters these burdens. People have felt the powerful uplift of Spirit.

Mary Baker Eddy, for example, tells us of the footsteps that led her to the discovery of the Science of Christianity, which is destined to free mankind from all earthbound concepts. She writes: "Limitations are put off in proportion as the fleshly nature disappears and man is found in the reflection of Spirit.

"... The material human concept grew beautifully less as I floated into more spiritual latitudes and purer realms of thought." ^{Retrospection and Introspection, p. 73.}

How can we release the ties that would prevent us from knowing the joy and freedom that come as Christ, Truth, lifts us into "purer realms of thought"? We can start by identifying ourselves correctly as sons and daughters of God. Jesus urged that we call no man our father on earth, "for one is your Father, which is in heaven." ^{Matt. 23:9.}

As we come to understand that God is the only creator and originator of our being, we begin to feel the God-given freedom that is our birthright. Progressively the belief that we are mortals attached by some umbilical cord to a bundle of hereditary beliefs begins to fade out.

Understanding more fully our spiritual individuality to be forever at one with God, we find that thought rises naturally to higher spiritual altitudes. We gain a wider vision of reality. As our horizon of consciousness expands, however, we don't lose sight of the loved landmarks; we see them in a fresh perspective as useful signposts along our onward way.

No one could call Jesus earthbound. And there is great joy in following the way he has shown us. There is also, to be sure, an immense work to be done to overcome the beliefs in mortality and its limitations, but if we heed his rules, set ourselves on a course of steady spiritual growth, we will find our aspirations soaring above materiality. We'll see the realm of Spirit to be present reality. Old ways of thinking—fear, sin, and disease— are progressively left behind. All the way we are upheld in God's all-powerful love!

Ann Kenrick