Article May 28, 1990 Issue

Perfection: a present fact, a step-by-step proof

We may feel that somewhere inside us there is perfection but find it difficult to express this perfection on a daily basis. Gaining a deeper knowledge of God will help us make genuine progress.

Joan Sieber Ware

While we were walking down a vast expanse of beach one day, my friend handed me a pure white shell. Its immaculate whiteness gleamed in the sunlight and I marveled at its radiant beauty.

I asked my friend, "Do you think this shell has always been so white, or did it become that way only after many, many washings in the surf?"

In a flash came a wonderfully clear explanation for a question I had struggled with since my early days in Sunday School. This question was: "Are there two of me? One, the entirely perfect child of God, made in His image, pure, and lovely, and the other, the not-so-great one, with thoughts and feelings that are far from perfect purity?" Sunday School teachers had patiently explained, had given me many helpful examples, and had encouraged me in my own study of Christian Science, but I wasn't able to feel the fact of man's oneness with God—of man's present spiritual perfection. There was too much that didn't measure up in my daily life!

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