Article September 26, 2016 Issue

Go ahead and represent!

Lynn G. Jackson

Many years ago a friend of mine worked as a salesman for a pharmaceutical company. On his first day of work he called on a gruff customer who didn’t waste time listening to sales pitches. So my friend, trying to get a foot in the door for a sale, introduced himself quickly, saying, “I represent the XYZ pharmaceutical company.” The customer shrugged his shoulders and grumbled, “Well, go ahead and represent!”

A few years later my friend found Christian Science, and he learned about a different kind of representation—man as the perfect representative of God as His spiritual idea, His expression. My friend came to understand the inseparability of God and man as cause and effect and how that relates to spiritual healing and the quality of our lives.

In the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy defines God as “the great I AM; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence” (p. 587). She defines man metaphysically as “the compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind” (p. 591).