Very early one morning I was on a plane flying eastward from the Hawaiian Islands to the mainland. The sky was almost black, with just a faint rim of light on the horizon to indicate the coming dawn. As I drew back the window curtain, I saw over the wing of the plane the brilliant glory of the morning star.

Many times during my holiday in the beautiful islands I had pondered a paragraph in Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, with the marginal heading, "Some lessons from nature." The sentence "The floral apostles are hieroglyphs of Deity" ^{Science and Health, p. 240;} inspired me to translate the visual beauty of flowering shrubs and waving palm trees into a symbol of eternal spiritual qualities of life and harmony. Now the brilliance of the morning star turned my thoughts to the next sentence in that paragraph: "Suns and planets teach grand lessons."

What grand lesson could I learn from this radiance? A Bible verse concerning Christ Jesus, in the last chapter of Revelation, came to mind: "I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star." ^{Rev. 22:16;} Why had this metaphor of the morning star come to John's inspired thought to represent the nature and mission of the Christ? What is the morning star? The realization came, Why, it's not a star at all; it's a planet. But what is the difference between a star and a planet? A star is a sun, generating and radiating its own light. A planet has no light of its own, it shines by the reflected light of the sun.

Then the spiritual lesson began to unfold. The theological error of the centuries has been to perceive Christ Jesus as a superstar, shining by his own light, rather than as the morning star of being revealing and reflecting the presence and power of God. His life and works were the outcome, the reflection, of that infinite, eternal good which is God.

When someone once addressed him as "good Master," Jesus responded, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." ^{Matt. 19:16, 17;} At another time, when the disciple Philip requested, "Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us," Jesus answered, "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." ^{John 14:8, 10;}

Jesus did not claim to be the personal originator of the truth and love he lived and taught; but he was the individual reflection of that Truth and Love which is God. He acknowledged God as the very source and substance of his being. Through his words and works he revealed the infinite grace and power of his ever-present Father, divine Love. He reflected the spiritual qualities and energies of his divine source.

One meaning of the word "reflect" is to give back—to mirror. Christ Jesus gave back—gave out—the inspiration and love the Father bestows on His reflection, man. The multitudes felt this radiation of divine good, and all who were receptive of it—perceiving something of their own true identity in the light of it—were healed and blessed. This was the evidence of the Christ, the outgoing, outgiving, dynamic expression of that infinite Life which is God. It was his clear perception of the true nature of man and man's inseparable relationship to God that enabled Jesus to heal the sick and the sinning. The clear perception of the same truth enables us to heal today.

Another message of the Christ in Revelation promises: "He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations. ... And I will give him the morning star." ^{Rev. 2:26, 28;} So it is everyone's destiny to realize and demonstrate his own unique place in the celestial order of divine Love. There he moves eternally in God's circuits, governed harmoniously by spiritual law, and radiating the beauty, intelligence, love, and life of his divine creator.

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis." ^{Science and Health, p. 258;} Man doesn't start from a point of limitation but from the standpoint of infinity. As the immortal creation, the expression, of God, he reflects eternally the unlimited potentialities of being. How great is man's true being!

But the gift of the morning star is promised to him "that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end." It is a reality to be demonstrated, a gift to be earned. There is work to be done. Every lie of limitation, every belief of life in matter, every claim of hereditary, educational, or social handicap, is to be overcome with the truth of man's spiritual status as the son of God. Apathy, indifference, selfishness, wishful thinking, or ignorance cannot attain this goal. Neither a sense of personal inferiority or superiority can reach it. Only meekness, humility, patience, persistence, and dedication as manifested in the life of Christ Jesus can accomplish it.

The starting point for this grand achievement cannot be the limitations of personal sense. Instead, it is the realization of the spiritual man's unlimited potential as the expression of immortal being. It affirms the ever-presence of the infinite—of God and His Christ, the divine Mind and its idea. It is to acknowledge, as an apostle insisted, that now are we sons of God. ^{See I John 3:2;} Now are we endowed with all the resources and opportunities we need; we have the ability now to express perfectly the ideas and talents Mind bestows upon us. We are equipped now to live with a consciousness of dominion. Step by step, through demonstrations both small and great, we can realize here and now that abundant life Christ Jesus promised when he said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." ^{John 10:10;}

As a university student I had an opportunity to make such a beginning when my application for a graduate fellowship reached the final stage of consideration. I was invited to fly to the university for a day of tests and interviews. Turning for guidance to the writings of Mrs. Eddy, I read in her address to a primary class in Christian Science: "You have come to be weighed; and yet, I would not weigh you, nor have you weighed. How is this? Because God does all, and there is nothing in the opposite scale." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 280.}

At once I saw what my preparation needed to be: I needed to realize clearly that "God does all, and there is nothing in the opposite scale." As Jesus had said, "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."

I reasoned that God, the creator, being divine Mind, knows all there is to know of His own creation. It follows that man, as Mind's idea, reflects this perfect knowing. I saw I could know all I needed to know under every circumstance, and that this included the power to express it. No limitations of age, education, or experience, no claims of pressure or personality, can negate this fact of the all-knowing Mind or hinder its demonstration.

I gratefully realized that divine Love had already prepared a place for me. Whether or not I would be accepted for this particular program was not in the hands of people. Mind alone would unfold the next stage in this progressive experience. There would be no competition with any other applicant, for each individual has his own uncontested place in Love's plan.

The hour-long aptitude test that marked the beginning of the final selection procedures included a section on mathematical reasoning, an area of study in which I had had no recent training or experience. Reaching a point of difficulty beyond which it seemed impossible to proceed, I turned to Mind for guidance and immediately was reminded that God knows all and that by reflection I could know all I needed to know. I looked back at the test paper and was led to reverse my approach; at once I arrived at the solution. The result was a score above the ninety-fifth percentile on this section of the test. Divine Mind, not human reason, had revealed the answers. As I flew home, assured of the desired fellowship, I gratefully acknowledged another proof of man's relationship to God as Mind's expression.

Christ Jesus is our Way-shower. We can learn to understand and love his revelation of the Christ as the morning star of true being. In the degree that we perceive his spiritual selfhood not as a superego but as the manifestation of the one divine Ego, we can begin to demonstrate our own spiritual selfhood as God's expression, and to realize more of the infinite potential of our being.