Imagine driving a car for miles at a time staring all the while in the rearview mirror. Not a very wise or safe plan. Imagine expecting to progress in spiritual understanding while preoccupied with the material scene around or behind us. Just as inconsistent.

In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy writes, "Man walks in the direction towards which he looks, and where his treasure is, there will his heart be also." ^{Science and Health, p. 451.} Christian Science teaches that man's real identity is spiritual, the expression of divine Mind—a term for God used in this Science. These teachings are in full accord with the life and work of Christ Jesus as presented in the Bible. Jesus demonstrated spiritual dominion over every aspect of human experience by relying on no other source but God. His life is the supreme example that man's real existence is demonstrably spiritual, and it is the basis for the scientific system of divine healing.

When I was young I used to sit in the rear seat of the family station wagon, facing backward. Often I became disoriented by watching everything in reverse and had trouble with travel sickness. And as I grew older, I continued to have this trouble, to the point where I simply accepted it as an inevitable part of travel.

But recently Christian Science helped me to change the way I see all this. A family and career transition meant many cross-country trips; some accompanied, some alone. The traveling seemed endless. But it was unavoidable, so I tried to approach it cheerfully.

One evening as I prepared for an early morning departure I realized I already felt sick. And I hadn't even left! I had been feeling burdened and anxious for weeks; now it was all too clear I had to do something. The time had come to stop keeping my eyes fixed, figuratively speaking, on the rear window.

Turning to God, I simply asked what I needed to see. This was the beginning of the answer: to exchange my limited perspective for a higher one. There was only one view: God's. From God's perspective, the only activity going on was divine Mind revealing itself through its perfect idea, man. Because I am God's reflection in my real being, I couldn't, in reality, come or go anywhere. All that existed was spiritual. There simply wasn't a material arena in which to come and go; only the narrow, materialistic senses said so. In reality I was as spiritually secure with God as I had always been. Nothing had changed. I had to stop honoring the difficulty of the past so I could move toward the future and see that really only the present existed—full of God's infinite love. I'd been behaving like a young child who wouldn't leave her mother for fear of never seeing her again.

I was instantly healed. I felt surrounded by my Mother-Father, by God. I thought of the father's response to the older son in Jesus' parable of the prodigal son, "Thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine," ^{Luke 15:31.} and realized this embrace included everyone, even those who feel beyond the touch of God's love for whatever reason. All the queasiness was gone. The rest of the driving was full of a sense of adventure and fun.

I was very grateful for the healing. More important, though, was my deepened spiritual awareness that real travel is actually spiritual progress. Real identity was already established with God—the thing to do was see more of it. And as with anything, in order to progress toward it, it must be seen. Past stages of human experience don't make up a person's identity. It's important to be grateful for good in the past, but it's also important to move on. Keeping the true destination in sight prevents confusion because of countervailing winds of thought. And there is only one true goal— the kingdom of heaven.

"The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed," Science and Health tells us, "but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us; and this advance beyond matter must come through the joys and triumphs of the righteous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions." ^{Science and Health, pp. 40–41.} And, "Pilgrim on earth, thy home is heaven; stranger, thou art the guest of God." ^{Ibid., p. 254.} Traveling faithfully, with sights set for heaven, one finds in fact he's already there.