If you were asked to make a list of your most valuable assets and possessions, would your identity be on that list? Probably not. Maybe you don't even think of identity as a "possession." But it is, when properly understood.

For the most part, people identify themselves by who and what they are physically and emotionally. Such identification can range from dull to witty, plain to gorgeous, skinny to overweight. Many times there's either too much or not enough of what people would like to be.

As long as the way we view ourselves remains at the level of matter and of a physical body, we're open to problems because material identification is vulnerable to change. But once we're willing to look beyond the physical picture, a new image of ourselves emerges.

Maybe you've never been properly introduced to your God-given spiritual identity. It's this genuine selfhood of each individual that Christ Jesus saw in others. By recognizing the perfection of God's man, the Master healed the sick and the sinning.

This spiritual identity is created of God, who is immutable Life and immortal Spirit. It can't be bruised, punctured, invaded, disturbed, or scarred. Revolutionary as such a concept is, it can transform not only our minds but our bodies, because the human body responds to spiritually imbued thought, as Jesus proved so supremely in restoring the crippled and blind.

I had unforgettable proof of this as a child when we lived near a lake. One evening my parents and I went for a sunset ride in our rowboat. Upon returning to shore, with all the exuberance of youth, I jumped out of the boat into shallow water, coming down on the sharp edge of a half-submerged can.

My parents wrapped my foot in a cloth, and Dad carried me to the car. While he wasn't a Christian Scientist, he gave Mom his full support to call a Christian Science practitioner to pray for me. There was no atmosphere of panic or alarm, although it was obvious when we cleansed the wound that it was deep. I can remember singing some of my favorite childhood hymns before Mom tucked me in for the night.

Late the next afternoon I decided I'd had enough of "room service" (two meals on a tray) and coloring books and "quiet" play. I put on my shoes and socks and went out to see what Mom was doing in the garden. Too many years have passed since then for me to remember exactly what she said, but I'll never forget her look of joy and gratitude as she saw me walking toward her ... slowly, but walking. Within a few days I could walk and play at full speed.

For many years after that, when brushing the sand off my foot at the beach, I felt a hard line of scar tissue along the arch, but it never bothered me. This, too, finally disappeared, to make the healing complete.

In fact, it was so complete that only recently did I realize that I'd never shared this healing or expressed my gratitude for it publicly. I realize now the importance of the childlike innocence that protected me from the many medical thoughts often attached to such an injury.

This innocence—and the practitioner's prayers to eliminate any lingering fear on the part of my parents—must surely have promoted the quick healing. No wonder Jesus tells us, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." ^{Matt. 18:3.} This heaven isn't a location to which we float after death but a state of spiritual consciousness possible to us here and now—a consciousness of God-provided peace, health, harmony. This Christian conversion requires a thorough change of thought, including an acceptance that life and intelligence transcend material definition.

The more we learn about the nature of God as indestructible Spirit, and the nature of man, made in His spiritual likeness, the easier it is for us to stand up to and reverse the constant descriptions of disease appearing daily in the media.

This isn't an argument for ignorance. Quite the contrary. Spiritual innocence and human ignorance are entirely different. Ignorance can neither protect nor heal. Innocence can.

Two important guidelines for parents (as well as nonparents) can be found in Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. "Children," we're told, "should be allowed to remain children in knowledge, and should become men and women only through growth in the understanding of man's higher nature." ^{Science and Health, p. 62.} Isn't this higher nature our spiritual identity?

And secondly: "Children should be taught the Truth-cure, Christian Science, among their first lessons, and kept from discussing or entertaining theories or thoughts about sickness." ^{Ibid., p. 237.}

How important (make that crucial!) it is to learn about the nature of God and our spiritual identity; about the Godlike qualities we possess for loving, for being truthful, intelligent, discerning. Expanding this knowledge of man's spiritual identity, beginning with God as our Father and Mother, our one true Parent, removes the hooks that heredity tries to hang theories on—theories about family obesity, character traits, and disease.

As eternal Life, incorporeal Spirit, God hasn't an element of matter—nothing that can be victimized, wear out, perish, be used up. Because we're created in His image and likeness, our genuine selfhood is safe in God's keeping. Once we become acquainted with our true identity, we'll never be the same again. We'll be better than we thought possible!