When my young daughter suddenly had a rash on her body, I thought of it as an opportunity to see the purity of her identity as God’s reflection. I knew that my daughter’s real nature was spiritual and therefore completely pure, untouched by disease or contagion. I told her that she was pure because she reflected the purity of God. My daughter and I decided to pray to see only the truth of her being as God’s child.

I understood that God is absolutely pure and the source of man’s purity. As God’s reflection, my daughter could not lose her God-given purity any more than God could lose His manifestation of purity. Therefore, it would be impossible for her to display imperfection or a blemish. Neither God nor His manifestation can be contaminated or tarnished. God’s child remains an innocent expression of God, entirely untouched by any suggestion of impurity.

Especially helpful were two statements from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. As part of her answer to the question, “What is man?” Mrs. Eddy states that man “has not a single quality underived from Deity; . . .” (p. 475). This showed me that since the qualities of man, the true identity of each of us, originate in God, we must be as pure as God. Neither the source nor the reflection can be tainted. Man includes all of the elements of purity—such as clearness, newness, and freshness—and not a single quality of impurity.