The first chapter of Genesis informs us that God created man in His image and likeness, and gave him dominion over all the earth. Also that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good." ^{Gen. 1:31.}

In the second chapter we read: "But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground." ^{Gen. 2:6, 7.}

So from Genesis 1 we know that God created man of His own substance, Spirit. He formed man in His own likeness: immortal, eternally harmonious, reflecting His wholeness, holiness, and perfection, and having dominion over all the earth. The question is this: Is the following account—the "mist" account of creation—really telling us that then God capriciously, in a moment of beclouded whimsy, changed His Mind and formed man "of the dust of the ground"? Did God actually withdraw His gift to man of dominion over all the earth? If taken literally, Genesis 2 indicates that He did—that He made man a bondslave to an artful, cunning force: materiality. It shows that He made him subservient to material laws; hence subject to disease, deterioration, and death—indeed, to all the challenges that now face mankind in its seeming separateness from God: loneliness, unemployment, poverty, hunger, inhumanity, war, the threat of nuclear holocaust.

But as Christian Science points out, the purpose of the "mist" account of creation is simply to indicate the utter falsity of materiality, of the phenomenon of mankind born into matter, which would obscure God's true, spiritual man and universe. Genesis 2 is an allegory, exposing the unconscionable lies, or allegations, of the material senses about God's immortal, immutable creation, which He beholds as very good. Therefore human beings need not be tentative about the truth that man is God's image. Man reflects all that God is and remains forever untouched by any seeming power apart from God.

A particularly persuasive aspect of the legendary material creation is the claim of aging. Its basis is the acceptance of a material beginning—of physical birth, followed by infancy, youth, manhood, old age, and ultimate demise. Retirement is labeled as the beginning of the final stages, signifying diminishing physical and mental capabilities, all in accordance with a universal age-ist culture.

I hadn't given significant thought to the matter of aging until I retired. One day my schoolteaching career ended, and the next day I was a senior citizen, so to speak. There were monthly reminders. I no longer received salary checks from the board of education. Instead pension and social security checks were mailed to me. This change implied there was less need for me in the employment community. Further hints came through the recurring reports in the press of the personal hardship resulting from the fixed income of the senior citizen in the midst of soaring inflation. One day I thought, Why, they're talking about me! They're telling me that I am a senior citizen. Before retirement, even the very day, I hadn't related to the label "senior citizen," so now it seemed to come from left field.

Then came other nudges. One day I left the keys to my car in the ignition, got out, slammed the door, and locked myself out! Forgetfulness? A sign of aging? Not likely, I thought; that can happen to anyone at any age.

But without my realizing it, all this was having an effect. I was beginning to feel old.

So I turned unreservedly to God. I prayed, as I have learned to do daily in Christian Science, which follows the teachings of Christ Jesus. In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy speaks of Jesus as the Way-shower.

My prayer went something like this. Resting thought on the first chapter of Genesis, I realized that as God's image and likeness, man reflects everything that God is. I affirmed that because I was in truth God's reflection, I was spiritual, immutable, eternal, without beginning or end; that cause and effect belong to Spirit. Since God knows nothing about a material creation subject to material causes and effects, I as His reflection could know nothing about them either. The reflection of God has no intelligence, no volition, no creativity, of its own but reflects the divine intelligence, the only intelligence there really is.

The second chapter of Genesis came to thought. "But there went up a mist..." I got no further. The realization came divinely clear: There never was a mist! It was a moment that went beyond words to the divine reality. I glimpsed God's irrevocable, spiritual creation.

I experienced a profound regeneration, spiritually and physically. I found myself with new energy and vitality. I glimpsed man's agelessness. I no longer assessed myself and others in terms of age: "Are they younger or older than I?" I freely acknowledged that man is the complete idea of God, now and always—not growing into or aging out of completeness and wholeness. With this came a clear sense that eternal, productive employment—expressing and glorifying God—is not dependent on a human position. I no longer thought of that period when daily experience included a husband, child, career, and study for advanced college credits as a time when I was more needed or more productively employed than I am now. The truth is that man is not a mortal but an immortal, eternally needed by his Maker. As divine reflection, man coexists with God, and this truth is implicit in God's allness.

The only "aging" that the human being need agree to is spiritual maturing—that is, the progressive recognition of his sonship with God. This refutes the belief that one can be separated from true life and health. The recognition of the universality of Spirit and of man's sonship with God destroys not only the belief in corporeality but also notions of limited intelligence. There is nothing provisional about God's allness; nothing tentative about man's sonship with God; nothing provisional or tentative about spiritual life and health.

Mrs. Eddy writes in the textbook, "Befogged in error (the error of believing that matter can be intelligent for good or evil), we can catch clear glimpses of God only as the mists disperse, or as they melt into such thinness that we perceive the divine image in some word or deed which indicates the true idea,—the supremacy and reality of good, the nothingness and unreality of evil."^{Science and Health, p. 205.}

Since this experience, when suggestions of aging come, I find instant uplift as I realize there never was a mist.