Have you verified your identity?

We do it daily, often several times—verify our identity by entering passwords or codes and answering security questions. This task can seem mundane, but it is becoming increasingly clear just how important these steps are in protecting the integrity of our personal and professional information. 

One morning while logging in at my work station, I received the familiar notification on my phone to verify my identity by entering an additional code. Then a thought came to me: Have you really verified your identity today? This thought struck me forcefully, and I considered a follow-up question: What is my identity?

For some time I have been reading and studying the Bible along with Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy to strengthen my understanding of my relationship to God. And I have been learning that everyone is God’s child, made in His image and likeness and therefore completely good, as declared in the first chapter of Genesis in the Bible. The two “great” commandments designated as such by Jesus—to love God supremely and our neighbor as ourself (see Matthew 22:37, 39)—would have to include seeing all of those neighbors as loved children of God.