Article December 11, 1989 Issue

Man, God's undistorted image

Sometimes the stress and challenge of daily life distort our view of who we really are: the loved children of God.

Moira Davidson

Anyone who has seen children squealing with delight in front of the distorted mirrors at a fair or an amusement park can appreciate their hilarity. How do we know that such ludicrous shapes are merely distortions? We have seen normal reflections often enough to know that the distorted ones are misrepresentations of true human shapes.

There is another misrepresentation, however, whose unreality we do not so readily perceive. That is the image of ourselves as corporeal. The Bible tells us that we are actually spiritual. So then where does this image of corporeality come from? Doesn't it come from thinking of ourselves as material, even mortal, beings? There could be no corporeality without this mental image of ourselves. Yet isn't there also something within us that alerts us to see that a corporeal selfhood offers no true security or lasting value?

We may for a while ignore this intuition that a corporeal selfhood is not a true representation of our identity. But experience, or sheer discontent with the limitations and sorrows of material existence, will force us all, sooner or later, to seek a more lasting and reliable understanding of our real nature, which is spiritual. We do not have to wait for some far-off heaven to find this permanent selfhood. Christian Science has come to show us how to turn away right now from the corporeal to our spiritual and permanent selfhood, the true image created by God, Spirit, Mind.

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