You're just like your Father

The Editors

Think of the beauty of the Bible text read at the closing of each Sunday’s Christian Science church service, which includes, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God” (I John 3:2). Right now, you and I and everyone are God’s own sons and daughters!

Sometimes people see the children of someone especially athletic, beautiful, or smart and say, “Oh, they’re really athletic or beautiful or smart, too, because their dad or mom is.” Although human theories of heredity are counterfeits of divine Truth, the true concept of inheritance is something awesome to contemplate. Think what your heritage is—who your Father is and who your Mother is; it’s God! Now just think what that says about you.

You are beautiful right now because you’re made in the very image of Soul, God. You are blazingly intelligent right now because you’re one of the perfectly formed ideas of divine Mind. Your reliability and integrity are unquestionable and unfailing right now because you come from divine Principle. You are loved, loving, and extremely lovable right now because your sweet connection with divine Love is unbroken for all eternity.

You are beautiful right now because you’re made in the very image of Soul, God.

There’s a marked contrast between the “inspired Word of the Bible” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 497) and how the inspired ideas in the Bible are often misinterpreted, espousing the belief that we’re all miserable sinners with a very undesirable heritage. There’s no doubt that each of us needs to face and conquer sin, as long as the belief of sin seems real and powerful to us. Yet, Christ Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Jesus wouldn’t have urged us to realize our perfect selves if this was something that was unattainable or based on a sense of human perfectionism, or if we weren’t truly spiritually perfect to begin with. This is so important to realize, since starting from the standpoint that we’re fallen sinners and trying to work up to becoming perfect is as difficult and unhelpful as putting on a blindfold and then setting out for a walk in a crowded city.

The ending of the text mentioned at the start of this article says, “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (I John 3:3). Or as the New King James Version says: “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” That’s the daily work we’re called to do with great joy, to daily affirm our pure heritage as the radiant sons and daughters of God. What a blessing Christ Jesus and the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, gave us through their teachings, which reveal our inherent perfection. Since you are like your Father, your path in life is unlimited and full of all things good!

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March 31, 2014

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