Often children talk about what they want to be when they grow up. We all did that ourselves as children. Astronauts, movie stars, singers, sports heroes, president. But did we grow up to meet what we imagined would be our purpose in life? Truthfully, many of us are probably going through life in ways that are very different from our childhood dreams. Is it because we outgrew those fantastical images of ourselves and intentionally designed our lives to fit more conventional careers? Or did we perhaps lose that innocent belief in ourselves, the belief that all things are possible—that all things should be possible.

As childhood ends, people all too commonly begin drifting into limiting ways of thinking about their capabilities. "I can't" may become the response to life's possibilities. "I can't because I'm too ...." Or, "I'm not smart enough, big enough, talented enough ...." Maybe it's just fear that plays too big a role in determining what paths to pursue along life's journey. Fear in whatever form limits and obstructs. It never forwards progress. The Bible's first account of creation, Genesis chapter one, shows that God created each of us in His own "image." We reflect His being. It follows, then, that since God is unlimited, as His reflection we are unlimited, too.

But day-to-day life isn't some childhood fantasy of unlimited possibilities—of spotlights, rocket ships, and championship-winning touchdowns. In fact, life seems mostly to be about scratching out a living, keeping a family together—just making it from day to day.

When dreams of grandeur give way to the hard facts of adulthood, we might ask if we really are "master of our own destiny." It might not seem like it. But as we open up to the spiritual promises of the Bible, we can begin to really trust that as God's very likeness, nothing can fence in our progress. Nothing can rise up to decree, "You can't do it." Since God is everyone's source, and He is illimitable, our possibilities and opportunities are also illimitable. Divine Mind is unendingly creative, so the combinations of creative possibilities for every idea of Mind can never be exhausted. Each individual is blessed by God, divine Soul, which, according to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, "... has infinite resources with which to bless mankind ..." (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 60).

While finding our purpose in life might seem a matter of pursuing the right career, marriage partner, graduate program, or art school, our true destiny really lies in a much higher realm—the realm of Spirit. For no matter what we choose, the path toward God is the path that liberates everyone, including the sick and desolate, from any kind of limitation. As Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of this magazine, wrote: "Man has a noble destiny;and the full-orbed significance of this destiny has dawned on the sick-bound and sin-enslaved" (No and Yes, p. 46).

The task for each of us is to dissolve our fear of moving forward. To let God's light shine through us and through our work. By submitting our limited personal will to His will—by trusting exclusively in God's unfailing spiritual provision and guidance—we can overcome even the most apparently intransigent forces, and claim our freedom from limitations.

Mary Baker Eddy faced what to many people would be insurmountable obstacles: illness, widowhood, poverty, limited education, divorce, rejection by family. And all of these in the 19th century, when women's options were severely limited. Yet her understanding of the supremacy of God's power led her not only to overcome, but to prevail, over each of these setbacks. In Science and Health she explained the unlimited vistas possible for each us in life's journey. She wrote, "God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis" (p. 258).

Because we are spiritual beings, God has created each of us capable of even more than we can possibly dream of doing. We can trust that fact, and act upon it. For in God's illimitable universe, it's never too late to follow our vision of what's possible. And to see the dawning—in our lives and others'—of the noble destiny that is ours as spiritual ideas of God.