One Monday morning recently, I was opening my e-mails when I spotted one from a good friend, so I quickly opened it. It said that she and her husband were in Spain and that they had been held up at gun-point and stripped of all their money and credit cards. It explained they still had their passports, but in order to pay the hotel bill and continue on their trip they would need quite a sum of money. And they asked if I could help them out by sending them some money to save their embarrassment.

Well, I was just thinking what was the best way to help my friends when I said to myself, “Wait a minute. You saw these friends with their family yesterday eating at the same restaurant you were in! How could they be in Spain? Wake up! This is a scam!” A quick call to my friends assured me that they were indeed safely in London. This fraudulent e-mail had been sent to their friends all over the world. The only good thing that came out of it, they said, was that they got to talk to all their concerned family and friends on the telephone, which they hadn’t done in months!

Our innate innocence as a child of God can never be taken away.

These scams of course are not uncommon on the Internet, but when they come right into our homes by way of our e-mail address, and involve us personally, they alert us to defend our true spiritual heritage as sons and daughters of God. In reality we cannot be duped into thinking that we are vulnerable to evil. Our unique identity, made in God’s likeness, is inviolable; it cannot be stolen from us. Our innate innocence as a child of God can never be taken away, for as God’s image we are at all times governed and protected by the law of divine Principle, Love.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible speaks of this true identity: “To him who overcomes I will give . . . a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it” (Rev. 2:17, New King James Version). I understand this to mean that each of us has a distinct spiritual identity, which is a gift from God. On this white stone is written a name which only the one who receives it directly from God can recognize. Surely this is our divine password that gives us free access at all times to God’s domain—the kingdom of heaven.

As Christian Scientists we learn to defend our God-given identity and not allow impostors—usually coming in the guise of aggressive suggestions in our own thought—to steal away our inheritance of good. Some of these predators come in the guise of arguments that would suggest that we are not worthy to be called God’s child and that we cannot possibly live up to such a lofty title. Even Christ Jesus had to deal with such a devilish argument when he was in the wilderness in the early days of his ministry. Matthew’s Gospel reports that Jesus had just heard God’s voice telling him unequivocally: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (3:17). The devil then tried to make Jesus doubt his true identity as God’s Son. He insinuated the little word if into the question: “If thou be the Son of God . . .” (Matt. 4:3, 6). Jesus countered all the devil’s, evil’s, arguments by citing God’s law as his protection. He dismissed the devil finally with the authoritative words “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matt. 4:10).

Mary Baker Eddy echoed the Master’s words when she instructed, “Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake” (Science and Health, p. 442).

Not long ago, I had an example of how God’s law is always in full operation to protect us. I was traveling back to England after a very inspiring conference held by The Mother Church in Boston. I was taking the day flight home, so I had to be at the airport around 6:30 a.m. A worker for my airline was helping me with my luggage check-in, and then he took my passport and got me my boarding pass for my flight. He handed these items back to me, but when I got to the passport security checkpoint, I could not find my passport anywhere. It must have slipped out of the pocket of my handbag.

At first I was panic-stricken. All sorts of thoughts crowded in—How was I going to travel without my passport? Would I be held up and miss my flight? As someone went back to see if it had fallen on the busy concourse, I took a few moments to pray. Immediately the thought came that my real identity did not exist between the pages of a passport. I could, as Jesus told his disciples, “rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). That spiritual assurance steadied me, and when I opened my eyes, the passport officer was smiling at me saying, “We were waiting to see the face that matched this passport.” Was I happy! Obviously the passport had been picked up and safely placed in the right hands. I gave thanks to God for this simple solution.

We can pray daily to see that our true identity is always intact, safe in God’s keeping, where we find our eternal oneness with divine Love. No predators or impostors can steal our innocence from us, or disrupt the lawful running of God’s kingdom.