Never born, never aging
“Stand porter at the door of thought,” Mary Baker Eddy charges us in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. “Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously” (p. 392 ). We may be willing enough to do this with thoughts of sickness, something we desire to reject, but what about the more subtle suggestion of having a birthday?
We all believe we have a birth date. We are never allowed to forget it as we’re required to list it to confirm our identification when enrolling in courses, applying for a license or a passport, and at countless other times.
But the Bible states right at the beginning, in the first chapter of Genesis, before any other stories commence, that man is made in the image and likeness of God, that man is made by God alone, and that “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (1:31 ).
Because man is made in the image and likeness of God, he is not material; he is spiritual. In her writings, Mrs. Eddy is very clear about man’s real status as the child of God. On page 258 of Science and Health, she says, “Never born and never dying, it were impossible for man, under the government of God in eternal Science, to fall from his high estate.”
For many years I eagerly read the “never dying” part of that statement but skipped over the “never born” part. My father had passed on unexpectedly from illness when I was a teenager, and my husband had been killed in an accident when I was in my 20s. Death seemed so real to me because I thought I was living with the daily proof of it. I spent many years praying to see through this belief of death, but never once did I contemplate the idea of “never born” or see its connection to “never dying.”
Recently, I became aware of the need to challenge the notion that we are growing older. Working with people the next generation ahead of me, attending to their needs, I suddenly realized the similarities between their beliefs and fears about their bodies, and my own beliefs and fears. It was clear to me that the frailties and limitations of so-called old age are not actualities created by God; they are mental suggestions that we can put off, right now.
Deterioration is an illusion, part of the dream that we live in a material body. According to that dream, deterioration doesn’t start happening once we reach retirement age; it starts happening the moment we are born and marches inevitably through growth, maturity, and death. I have heard countless times the old saying that the only certainties in life are death and taxes. What I realize now is that this conclusion only follows if we have accepted the belief of birth into matter.
The frailties and limitations of so-called old age are not actualities created by God; they are mental suggestions.
For over ten years, I had been experiencing intermittent pain and loss of movement in my fingers. My work at that time required that I be able to type, sometimes for hours each day. This was very difficult. I prayed daily with the ideas from the Christian Science Bible Lesson and studied Mrs. Eddy’s writings. I would gain some relief through my prayers and experience more movement in my fingers for a couple of months, but the pain and loss of movement would always return. Finally one finger became permanently immobile, and I experienced continual pain in the joint of that finger.
At this time, an opportunity arose for me to change careers. The new work involved assisting people with limited physical movement. It required of me full freedom of movement. I prayed daily to express this freedom. I was able to perform all duties asked of me each morning and evening, but at night I would crawl into bed aching from head to foot. Some nights I would not be able to move without intense pain. I would pray through the night until the pain left, and I was always able to attend to any needs of the people I was caring for throughout the night, as well as being able to perform my duties the next morning, without suffering.
This continued for a month. Even though it was a very challenging time for me physically, I was learning a lot about my relationship with God and what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God—spiritual, not material. I was learning to live these ideas actively in my daily experience.
Nothing changed from this routine until one day when I was speaking with a friend about the idea of having never been born and never dying. Later that night, after completing my duties at work, I again experienced pain throughout my body, but I reasoned through the logic of having never been born into matter. As I thought about this idea, the pain left, and I fell into a peaceful sleep. Since then, I have been able to perform all physical duties and sleep easily at night. I have complete freedom of movement of my hands, including all fingers. This healing occurred over a year ago, and I have not had any recurrence of these symptoms.
Every time we acknowledge our birth date as part of our identity, we are affirming the myth of our arrival into matter—and unwittingly accepting the impositions of age, deterioration, and death that go with the material sense of life. We must actively challenge that myth and claim our true identity as a spiritual idea. For if we have never been born into matter, we cannot experience any material suffering. Never born and never dying, we are truly free.
