SENTINEL WATCH July 18, 2005 Issue

THE TRULY CLEAN SLATE

RICHARD NENNEMAN

independence day , which Americans, have just celebrated, recognizes July 4, 1776, one of the seminal dates in the birth of the United States of America. The culmination of that birth came 11 years later in Philadelphia, when "the framers" met to draft the US Constitution. This document enshrined many of the principles of government that had been theorized upon but not yet put into practice in any major way. What made this possible was the fact that a new nation was being formed—the slate indeed was clean, and the framers didn't need to graft their ideas onto something old.

Something akin to this process can happen in individual lives when one adopts a spiritual way of thinking. When we begin to see ourselves as the children of God, as perfect representatives of all that is Godlike, the limitations of one's former sense of identity begin to drop away. In each one of us, God expresses the intelligence of infinite Mind, and the liveliness and vivacity of the divine Life—two of the synonyms that the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, gives for God. Since God is also divine Love, we begin to see that not only are we cared for, but that God has the same relationship to all His creation. Thus we begin to expect and to experience more harmony in our relationships with others, whether they are those intimate family relationships or the broader ones of business and social life.

Jesus once told his listeners: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me" (Matt. 11:28, 29). Here I see Jesus telling his followers not to lean on him personally, but to trust the Christ, the knowledge of God's presence that can come to every individual, to lift burdens and let him or her see what God is doing. Science and Health says: "Christ presents the indestructible man, whom Spirit creates, constitutes, and governs. Christ illustrates that blending with God, his divine Principle, which gives man dominion over all the earth" (p. 316).