The Bible instructs us: “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace” (Psalms 37:37). 

How do we behold—see—God’s perfect man? By starting with God. God is infinite Spirit, divine Love, spiritual Truth, pure Soul, eternal Life, the all-knowing and all-good Mind, and the ever-operative and harmonious Principle of the universe and man. And God made all that was made—and that includes everyone. 

How do we behold—see—God’s perfect man? By starting with God.

Knowing that God made man in His own image and likeness—spiritual, pure, perfect, beautiful, upright, whole, and complete—is a healing prayer. It leads us to uphold goodness, to act rightly. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes about this in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “When we learn the way in Christian Science and recognize man’s spiritual being, we shall behold and understand God’s creation,—all the glories of earth and heaven and man” (p. 264).

Prayer that marks and beholds God’s beautiful, perfect man removes any thought that could lead us to doubt the oneness of God and His complete and loving control over all. It is a prayer that promotes goodwill and unconditional love in all that we do, and most important, it moves us to love God. 

We can demand within ourselves to see God’s perfect man right where sinning, sick, mortal man presents itself as man’s real identity. This is a powerful step in prayer that helps us to wake up to our spiritual selfhood and to remove fear and any false labels that have seemed real to us.

Many years ago as a young mother with my first baby, I was First Reader at our local Church of Christ, Scientist. One afternoon, while practicing for the upcoming Sunday service, the substitute Second Reader read that verse from Psalms about marking the perfect man, which was part of the Bible Lesson that we would be reading for the Sunday service. She then paused and shared a beautiful thought with me. She told me how she had prayed with that exact psalm when praying about her son, Mark.

When she needed to pray about Mark or about something he was going through, she would remember the Bible citation: “Mark: the perfect man.” We laughed, but we both understood the deeper meaning behind that thought and declaration. Her prayer broke through any doubt she had of God’s care. She was acknowledging God’s perfect man, seeing her son as God’s child: whole, healthy, and sustained by God’s unconditional love. It was such a sweet idea to share. 

She didn’t know it, but my one-year-old son was sick at home that day. I almost hadn’t come to practice, but my husband was able to come home and care for the baby. Our son had a high fever and hadn’t eaten anything since the day before. I was praying a lot about the situation, and my husband, who was not a Christian Scientist, had given me the space to do this. My husband had seen other healings with our new baby, and he, too, was trusting in prayer for our son.

So, when the Second Reader shared that idea with me, I silently said to myself, “Peter (my son’s name): the perfect man,” affirming that he was and always had been made perfect by divine Love, God. I felt much calmer. We finished our practice reading of the Bible Lesson-Sermon for the upcoming service, said goodbye, and each headed home.

I knew that my child was sustained by God’s undeviating love and was untouched by any false suggestion or claim of mortal mind.

All the way home, I prayed with that lovely thought, “the perfect man.” Mrs. Eddy explains in Science and Health that “… Life is God, good, and not evil; that Soul is sinless, not to be found in the body; that Spirit is not, and cannot be, materialized; that Life is not subject to death; that the spiritual real man has no birth, no material life, and no death” (p. 288). I had been praying daily to see our baby as God’s perfect child, but at this moment I was specifically seeing him as God’s perfect man—whole, healthy, complete, strong, and ageless! Not little, weak, tired, or sick. I knew that my child was sustained by God’s undeviating love and was untouched by any false suggestion or claim of mortal mind. 

When it comes to our children, we naturally want to give them the best care possible. I had many wonderful healings as a child and young adult through complete reliance on the specific prayer that is Christian Science treatment. I knew that God meets every human need, and that divine Mind, God, is the healer in every case.

When I got home, my son was completely healed and I had been gone only a few hours. Praying to recognize or “mark the perfect man” had completely removed my fearful thought. Instead of rushing home to check on the baby, I calmly drove home and prayed as I went, acknowledging God as the only cause, and how the natural effect is love, health, joy, harmony, and peace. I knew that God was in control of every detail of my family’s life, and that the outcome would be only good. What a beautiful healing that was.

How grateful I am to know that Christian Science teaches us how to turn away from false, aggressive suggestions and to recognize and discern our true spiritual identity. Christian Science certainly makes evident what we need to give our attention to in our prayers, what thoughts we need to correct with spiritual understanding. Christian Science treatment gets to the root of disease and sickness by dealing with fear by awakening our thought to God’s powerful and gentle presence and love for all His children.

As we “mark the perfect man” by beholding freedom, spiritual harmony, holiness, and immortality as the reality in everyone, we see age, illness, and mortality disappear in the light of divine Truth. The natural outcome of this spiritual beholding is peace, health, freedom, and healing.