Article February 20, 2006 Issue

You and I are worth knowing

BY MAYAL TSHIABUILA

To be someone, for many, means having an important ancestry. Wouldn't some people feel better if their family line were traced back to a king or emperor? Maybe, but the Bible says, "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity" (Eccl. 1:2). After giving readers of her autobiographical work, Retrospection and Introspection, an impressive account of her human ancestry, Mary Baker Eddy concluded, "... our material, mortal history is but the record of dreams, not of man's real existence, and the dream has no place in the Science of being. It is 'as a tale that is told,' and 'as the shadow when it declineth' " (p. 21).

The search for one's God-given identity is a necessity. It means going beyond one's human parents, past all ancestors, rich or poor, powerful or not, to our divine Father, the only Creator. Finding Him and getting acquainted with Him reveal our true nature and identity as His children. In her book Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy shed light on this Father whom Jesus revealed to all humanity. She described God as "incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love" (p. 465).

To understand our identity as children of God, Spirit, would radically change our life prospects. It would help eliminate racial conflict, for instance, and prove that no one race is "the heir of the Kingdom," to the exclusion of others. It would also aid in establishing the innate equality of men and women. God being known to all as "Omnipotent," "the Most High," "the Almighty," who would not be proud to introduce himself or herself as a son of God, or a daughter of the Almighty?