Faces reveal a lot. A recent newspaper story included a picture of a bootmaker who was clearly delighted over an increasing demand for the footwear he personally designs and assembles. His business is thriving! Then there was a report on television showing a financial analyst confident and secure as he scanned the very favorable figures from the world's financial markets. What these people were seeing indicated growth and prosperity, and this was reflected in their expressions.

Sometimes, however, what is being expressed on faces or in people's attitudes indicates undesirable conditions. The anger of demonstrators shouting and waving torches because of political oppression. Unemployed workers, frustrated and desperate. Some expressions tell of despair, some of hatred.

It may seem unquestionable that the conditions around us—whether severe or stimulating—determine what we think, how we feel, what we express. We may be convinced that when outward conditions change, for better or for worse, only then will there be an inward change, a change in our attitude and feelings. Yet, as many accounts in the Bible indicate, a shift in thought to a spiritual basis, discerning what Spirit, God, is expressing of Himself, actually reverses this seemingly natural order of things.

When our hearts and thoughts turn Spiritward, when we accept what Christian Science reveals of God, of His law, and of man as the image of God governed by divine law, this spiritual perception has a stirring and deeply profound effect on us. It changes the very basis of what we perceive existence to be. It confers a feeling of true joy and satisfaction, regardless of circumstances, and helps bring change for the better.

Instead of the human view of life—of you and me as defined by matter, subject to a sometimes pleasant, sometimes perilous material environment—Science reveals life as spiritual and as eternally perfect. Our individual identity, our nature, our whole being, we learn, is actually what God is expressing of His being. "Everything in God's universe expresses Him," writes Mrs. Eddy in her book Science and Health (p. 331). And we learn that this expression of Life and Love doesn't fluctuate. Nor is it dependent on material conditions. It's entirely spiritual. Intelligence, life, love, and goodness are freely given of God and reflected invariably throughout His creation, which includes man.

It's no wonder if we feel we're governed by material conditions and circumstances that eventually we'll find ourselves frustrated and incapacitated, seeing only what we don't have and can't do. On the other hand, we expand our capacities, gain strength and vitality, and find freedom by understanding that the actual source of life is Spirit, God, who is all good; that every aspect of our being comes directly from God and is governed by Him. The genuine love we feel, the good we know and do, the wisdom we manifest, the happiness we radiate, point to what God is constantly expressing of our real selfhood.

Being unprepared or unwilling to refute, through Science, a material sense of existence, we drift along subject to its shortcomings, sufferings, and decline. We find ourselves easily taken in by appearances and human opinions, as were the people mentioned in Luke's Gospel who were convinced that because Jairus's daughter had died, nothing more could be done for her.

But someone arrived on the scene who clearly saw things differently. It was Christ Jesus. We read, "All wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth" (see Luke 8:49–55).

What was he looking to for life? Throughout his ministry Jesus proved that God is the true Life of man, perfect and eternal, that He is the source and sustainer of man's being. This situation then became an opportunity for the Master once again to demonstrate this fact—to show that man's life is spiritual, independent of material conditions; that man's real being is the unhindered, unceasing expression of divine Life itself. Jesus' strong moral and spiritual stand wasn't shaken or undermined by material appearances. Quite the contrary; what he perceived of life enabled him to restore the girl.

It comes as a great relief to know that we don't have to be—and in fact, that we never were—subject to any material condition. Man, like everything else created by God, is entirely spiritual. The enlightened state of thought that proceeds from an understanding of this is powerful. It has a practical, healing effect in human experience.

Superseding the troubles that accompany a material sense of being are the spirit and power of spiritual understanding, knowing who we really are and what we're capable of doing as the reflection of God. This understanding comes from Him and is the result of prayer and of our study of Christian Science.

Turning to the Bible and Science and Health, learning from these books about God and about our real nature as His expression, and putting into practice what we learn, bring to light more and more of our true selfhood as His likeness. We won't have the same old material view of ourselves and our world. We won't be so easily influenced by such a view either. Instead, we'll find ourselves trusting what our God-given spiritual sense tells us.

What will be the outcome? We'll exhibit greater intelligence, more thoughtfulness, more humility, have a greater interest in the welfare of others, and heal when it is called for. What we perceive spiritually of the reality of man as God's expression will transform us.

Russ Gerber