The phone rings .... I hang up, dash downstairs, rush to the emergency room of a hospital just in time to learn of the passing of a friend.

I feel threatened. Suddenly life seems meaningless, certainly short and fragile. My thought tosses and turns and finally stops at the bottom of an imaginary flight of stairs. Each step brings one closer to the top, where maturity and perhaps success, wealth, and fame await. Then down the stairs go to the dark bottom on the other side—to the darkness called death.

This flight of stairs symbolizes mortal life, which has a beginning and an end and is punctuated by a series of various human experiences.

Students of Christian Science, however, understand that God is Life and that God, Love, or Spirit, is the only Life there really is. He is the only Person, the only I. Divine Life can be symbolized by a circle because it is without beginning or end. Man exists as God's immortal, spiritual idea, as His perfect image and likeness. Man's being is the reflection of divine Mind and so naturally reflects God's perfection and wholeness. As the reflection of the All-in-all, man has everything he needs. As the spiritual idea of Love, of Truth, man has the occupation or career of reflecting God.

Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, "To the five corporeal senses, man appears to be matter and mind united; but Christian Science reveals man as the idea of God, and declares the corporeal senses to be mortal and erring illusions." ^{Science and Health, p. 477.}

Does all this mean that you and I don't have to pray, to learn, to strive, to love? Of course not. It means that every person—regardless of human status or prestige—is in reality the individual representation of Love, the idea of Truth, the reflection of Life. As such, man has only Godlike qualities; he continuously expresses God's love. It means that as the Father's spiritual children, we all are equally loved and cared for by Him.

Christ Jesus showed us the true meaning of Life by living this real, spiritual existence through the understanding of his sonship with God. He refused to accept what the senses would have convinced him of. He rejected the mortal suggestion that he existed in a physical body, the belief that he was the offspring of flesh. Most important of all, through spiritual understanding he had the strength and courage to turn consistently away from the flesh, away from the physical senses, to the divine consciousness. He accepted his God-given birthright and utilized his spiritual substance with humility, trust, and gratitude.

Jesus did not have the aid of a computer nor the privilege of a college education. But no one can deny that he had the most successful career in human history. He was not limited by matter's supposed laws, because he abided in God's law; and with this law, the power of Truth, he healed.

We too can follow Jesus' example by putting God first in whatever we do. We will find that by our recognizing God as Life, acknowledging His wisdom and power, yielding to His law and guidance, everything in our daily experience can be uplifted.

Sometimes personal glory and other temptations of the senses appear so colorful and attractive, so pleasant, so very real. But these are also fragile and brief. Material possessions and physical pleasures seem difficult to let go of. But those who look to divine Spirit, those who rise beyond the temptations of materiality and the senses, gain a stronger sense of divine Life and Love.

Jesus promised us dominion over matter: "Verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." ^{Mark 11:23, 24.}

We can turn from the vanity of human existence; rise beyond dazzling, alluring material fantasies; reach out for the bright, clear sunlight of Truth. We can trust God, love Him, obey Him, and enjoy His blessing. Science and Health urges: "Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious—as Life eternally is—can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not. Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence discord with harmony." ^{Science and Health, p. 495.}

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! ... For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever.

Romans 11:33, 36