One afternoon we were attracted by noises from the front of the house. There we observed high school students gathered around our parked car watching a robin pecking at his image in a hubcap. He would peck for a while at his supposed rival and then fall to the ground exhausted, later to resume the pecking. Some of the students laughed at his plight, others expressed pity, but most of them considered him stupid and foolish.

A student of Christian Science recognized in this incident a portrayal of the nonintelligence and confusion of mortal existence. Mary Baker Eddy describes it in these words in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 220): "Mortal mind produces its own phenomena, and then charges them to something else,—like a kitten glancing into the mirror at itself and thinking it sees another kitten." Further thought caused the Scientist to ask herself: "What do I understand of reflection? Do I comprehend it better than the robin?"

Mrs. Eddy states that few people understand what is meant by reflection as Christian Science interprets it (see Science and Health, p. 301). It was their lack of understanding of reflection which incited the people against Christ Jesus. His knowledge of himself as the reflection of God enabled him always to act with God-given dominion. The populace, thinking he considered himself God, threatened to stone him when he declared (John 10: 30), "I and my Father are one." The Master knew well that a reflection does not originate: it merely gives back the qualities of the original; it does not add to or detract from the original.

Looking through the lens of mortality, the people queried (Matt. 13:55, 56): "Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?" Mortal belief, glancing into the distorted mirror of materiality, always catalogues and classifies. Like the robin, it pecks at its own image until exhausted. Later it resumes its weary earthward pathway until aroused to a newer, higher view. Like Paul on the road to Damascus, mortal belief must become conscious of its blindness, its utter inability to reflect, for there is no reflection where there is no light.

The light of Truth shining through the lens of Spirit gave Jesus the true view of himself as the Son, or manifestation, of God and of his brothers and sisters and mother as those who do the will of the Father. Obedience characterizes sonship and entitles one to receive man's divine inheritance. Disobedience characterizes illegitimacy and its deflections of inharmony.

Even the disciples only faintly comprehended reflection, as the conversation with the Master after the last supper showed. After the ceremonial part of this meeting had ended and Judas had withdrawn, Jesus expounded some of his deepest precepts. He explained that he was going away and added that they knew his destination and the path. Thomas, with reasoning based on sense testimony, spoke up quickly, saying (John 14:5), "Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" Jesus replied by stating that if they had really known him they would also have known the Father, man's origin. Then Philip asked that they be shown the Father and said that this would satisfy them. For a moment the Master must have been disheartened by their spiritual dullness, for he said to Philip (John 14:9), "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?" Then he disclosed the truth, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." What a glorious example of pure reflection! No egotism, no claim of personal achievement!

Right reflection heals any sense of inferiority or superiority. It shows forth infinite ability, a quality of Spirit. It makes one aware that one does nothing of himself. This knowledge does not stifle individual capability, but brings it to light unhampered by mortal restrictions.

Man's only entity is as the reflection of divine Principle. There is no nobler ambition than to reveal spiritual selfhood. Let it be recognized that wisdom originates in Mind and not in us; the tenderness we express emanates from Love; the orderliness we manifest has its source in Principle; our spiritual senses are derived from Soul; our integrity stems from Truth. Because goodness is ours only by reflection, glory goes not to person, but to Him to whom it belongs.

God as All includes His reflection. The reflection cannot separate itself from the original and revolve in an orbit of its own; it coexists with the original. Christ Jesus expressed it thus (John 14: 10, 11): "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? ... The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me." This does not imply absorption in Deity, but is a sublime declaration of the inseparability of God and man.

Sometimes as the student of Christian Science grapples with the idea of incorporeal reflection, he becomes fearful lest he lose his identity. A Christian Science practitioner has on occasion been asked when this subject was being discussed: "What becomes of me? Do I disappear?" And she has replied in Mrs. Eddy's words (Science and Health, p. 265), "This scientific sense of being. forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace."

As one understands that man is the expression of God. he puts off the limited, imprisoned, physical sense of himself and claims the spiritual, unlimited individuality which God confers. Seeing himself as the reflection of the all-intelligent Mind, he is ushered into "a wider sphere of thought and action." As he reflects Love, his area of affection is expanded to include all mankind. Confident of his inseparability from his creator, he finds that restlessness is stilled and uncertainty is replaced with "a higher and more permanent peace."

Let us not hesitate to claim and express man's true selfhood, described in the first chapter of Genesis as the image and likeness of God. Then we shall see, as our Leader says (ibid., p. 126), that "the problem of nothingness, or 'dust to dust,' will be solved, and mortal mind will be without form and void, for mortality will cease when man beholds himself God's reflection, even as man sees his reflection in a glass."