My mother and I laughed together about a photograph of her taken during a recent visit. Seated in the cockpit of my neighbor's small airplane, she was obviously delighted. This neighbor, a very successful businesswoman, is retired but continues to fly her plane. My mother was interested to meet her because years ago she, too, had earned her pilot's license. My mother and I talked about how she looked in other photos, including one of her in the late afternoon sunlight with a green carpet of lawn stretching out behind her. "You know," she commented, "I really look happy." "You certainly do," I agreed.

This had not been the case a few months earlier when she lamented about attending her granddaughter's wedding. "It will probably be my last trip out there, but I'll come." Her words cast a pall over our conversation. It helped when I mentioned how her negative attitude affected me and others, but the sad comments recurred and deflated the joy of every situation. Her unhappy tone echoed in my thought long after I hung up the phone. Longing for a new perspective on this situation, I recalled that Christian Science teaches that inharmony and sorrow don't come from God and so have no power to destroy good.

I began to untangle the deceptions trying to ensnare both my mother and me and threatening to becloud my daughter's wedding. I knew that all evil is based on the lie that life is not entirely spiritual, but is both spiritual and material. This lie declares that man lives in a mortal body, which, over time, declines in health, beauty, and energy; and that the lovely energies of character such as cheerfulness, helpfulness, and gratitude wane as well. Depression and futility threaten to blight our advancing years. I thought about how my mother used to be—active, interested in others, pursuing her varied interests. I could see that the belief that we lose our usefulness would diminish relationships with family and friends.

Understanding that the material senses were presenting this unhappy view, I remembered a statement from Science and Health that pointed to a solution: "Jesus prayed; he withdrew from the material senses to refresh his heart with brighter, with spiritual views" (p. 32).

So, I considered the fact that man's usefulness is as constant as his relation to God. God, Spirit, made man in His own image and likeness, and therefore as God's reflection, man could not lose any quality of God. Usefulness, helpfulness, and kindness are qualities of God expressed by man without interruption. The picture of a mortal who had lost position or value in the world was seen to be absolutely unreal. The lie of decline is the opposite of what is actually happening—the unfolding of man's infinite, God-given capacities.

For many years my mother had enjoyed writing on scholarly subjects, but opportunities had been infrequent, leaving long periods without this activity she found inspiring. Yet I knew that God fulfills man's real desires and that man's talents are never wasted. I recalled that Science and Health declares, "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need" (p. 494). This meant that right where the ugly impressions of mortal mind were parading, right there the qualities of God were being expressed. I was gaining an understanding of the infinite progression of true being, and I knew I could expect to see evidence of the effect of this prayer.

A month later my mother was asked to participate on a team of scholars translating a book in her field. She sounded joyful and awed as she told me that the translation would be published by a major university. She now has professional responsibilities, an increasing sense of usefulness, and new companionship with those who share her interests.

As this new work unfolded, my mother's interest in her family also deepened, and she expressed more affection as a mother and grandmother. At my daughter's wedding she was an inspiration as she took to the dance floor and refused to sit out the fast dances. She also commented in one of our conversations how she wanted to do more for others who she knew needed the comfort of a visit from her. This was evidence that when prayer fulfills our deepest hopes, it also embraces others in this blessing.

In the photo mentioned earlier, she looked happier than I had seen her in a long time, with an inner radiance that blended with the glow of the late afternoon sun. And the snapshot of her at the controls of my friend's plane, smiling and poised for imagined flight, reminded me how she and my friend had both challenged limitations years ago by joining the first women's aviation club. Why then, since man is God's reflection, should this progress ever cease?

Like the pilot soaring upward through the dark clouds, we, too, can break free from the lie of mortality to experience the infinite, eternal capacities of our true selfhood. Mary Baker Eddy writes, "Fixing your gaze on the realities supernal, you will rise to the spiritual consciousness of being, even as the bird which has burst from the egg and preens its wings for a skyward flight" (Science and Health, p. 261).

God's law of infinite progress dispels every sad prediction of the material senses and supports our growth out of the beliefs of mortality. Then we demonstrate the truth of this statement: "The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man is, not shall be perfect and immortal" (ibid,. p. 428). We see that age and decline have nothing to do with our true, spiritual identity.