Gaining a satisfying answer to the question posed in the title of this article depends on how we're using the word see. Are we speaking of seeing through the physical sense of sight or "seeing" through the mind's comprehension of something? The expression "I see what you mean" could be stated accurately by a blindfolded person when informed of a particular concept or idea. On the other hand, "seeing" a spiritual idea through physical sight is quite impossible.

A young girl attending a Christian Science Sunday School was asked by her teacher, "Are we able to see God?" After a rather long pause she thoughtfully stated, "God is not really so much a 'see' as He is a 'feel.'" With God's grace may we all more consistently feel, perceive spiritually, God's loving presence and power.

We have difficulty getting a better understanding of God as Spirit or as divine Love—as the Bible defines Him—when we try somehow to know and see Him physically. This suggests an anthropomorphic concept of Deity, which is something I couldn't accept even as a teenager. Up to that time I had considered myself an atheist because I found it impossible to conceive of a Supreme Being as having some sort of physical form. I can remember reasoning that if there was a God, He couldn't possibly be material in any way. It was at that point that I was first introduced to Christian Science.

In beginning to study the Holy Bible, together with the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, I came to learn that God is indeed Spirit and, further, that He is the source of infinite intelligence, the one divine Mind. I learned too that He is Life itself and that He is Truth and Love. I suppose I had always intuitively felt the reality of God's nature, but now I was beginning to "see," to understand, God as the genuine source and substance of all good. And I was grasping the fact that God's creation, including man created in His image—in the likeness of Spirit—would have to be spiritual.

Although these glimpses of spiritual reality were becoming more frequent, I can still remember feeling somewhat the way the Pharisee Nicodemus must have felt when Christ Jesus said to him, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus asked, as many of us might today, "How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" (John 3:3,4).

The point here is that it is impossible to see a spiritual idea physically, or to perceive it with the human intellect, although mortal thought would constantly demand that we do so. This demand of a so-called material, or mortal, mind is one of the most aggressive deterrents to spiritual growth, because it would cloud our God-given spiritual sense, which reveals the truth of being and shows us what it means to be "born again."

In trying to form a material picture of our spiritual identity, we're reasoning from the mistaken basis that we're mortals, and then striving through the limited human mind to cognize what only spiritual sense can discern. Yet the truth is that we are already the sons and daughters of God. The fact of the matter is that in truth there is no mortal or material being, since, as the Bible teaches, man is the image and likeness of God, Spirit. It is imperative to understand that there are not two of us, but one! There is no dualism associated with man, God's image, and this truth is seen through spiritual perception.

I can remember often wrestling with the question "If there is only one of me, and that one is spiritual, without beginning or end, what is my relationship to this mortal body, which seems to be me?" (This is one of those times when so-called mortal mind demands that we see a spiritual idea through physical sense, or the human intellect.) The question is accurately answered only through spiritual sense, which brings us back to this basic premise: In truth there is no mortal or material being, since man is the image and likeness of God, Spirit. Because there is but one infinite Mind, all that exists must, in reality, express the perfect nature of this Mind, or Spirit. Therefore, that which is called a mortal is not our true being but a false, counterfeit sense of identity. So-called mortal mind suggests that life, intelligence, and substance are in matter, the supposed opposite of Spirit. But reality is the outcome of the one Mind alone.

In her Miscellaneous Writings Mrs. Eddy illustrates the oneness of Mind, God, and His spiritual creation when she asks the question "But, say you, is a stone spiritual?" She answers: "To erring material sense, No! but to unerring spiritual sense, it is a small manifestation of Mind, a type of spiritual substance, 'the substance of things hoped for.' Mortals can know a stone as substance, only by first admitting that it is substantial. Take away the mortal sense of substance, and the stone itself would disappear, only to reappear in the spiritual sense thereof" (p. 27).

In a profound way our sole task is to awake progressively to our perfect state of being by brushing away the dust from our eyes, as it were. The consciousness that acknowledges and understands God as Spirit, and man as therefore spiritual, is our true selfhood—our spiritual individuality speaking.

It is extremely important that we firmly establish in thought as absolute fact that man is at this moment, and always has been, spiritual, perfect, complete, harmonious in every aspect. This involves a steady acknowledgment of one's true, spiritual selfhood and a denial of the supposed validity of a mortal selfhood. This yielding to the reality of being is what awakens us to who we actually are, to the discernment and demonstration of our genuine identity as God's idea.

Gaining and maintaining this clear perception is a step-by-step process. It demands a deep faith and disciplined commitment and forwards the new birth that Jesus spoke of to Nicodemus. This spiritualized state of consciousness clears away the fog of mortal belief, which suggests doubt and confusion, if not outright opposition to spirituality.

The practical application of spiritual truth is illustrated in a physical healing I experienced early in my study of Christian Science. My leg was broken in a skiing mishap. A doctor put the broken leg in a cast and heavily bandaged both knees and the other ankle, since the ligaments had been torn. That evening friends suggested I might want to contact a Christian Science practitioner (a person who helps others through prayer), since I was not on medication and had been released by the physician. While I don't remember exactly what was said in that initial conversation with the practitioner, the result was an unshakable conviction that even though the material picture as shown in the X-ray seemed true, it would be impossible for a spiritual idea (which I was learning was my true identity) to be torn, broken, or dislocated in any way.

I slept peacefully that night, and the next morning I was convinced a complete healing had taken place. The following day the cast and bandages were removed, much to the amazement of the doctor. The healing has been permanent. This early experience continues to be a source of inspiration, showing the coincidence of the divine and the human as normal and natural.

So, while physically seeing a spiritual idea is quite impossible, we can rejoice in knowing that the infinite Mind, God, is constantly sending forth pure images of thought—healing, saving ideas—to be discerned and understood by each of us.