Finding Ourselves
Yes, we can find out who we are. God created us in His own image. If we look in His direction, we can't help but see evidence of who we really are. You won't find your identity where God's likeness is not. You don't find it in the sinful, the sensual, the violent, or the vicious.
The Bible shows God's creating, as revealed to prophets and patriarchs through the ages. During some recent Bible study, at a time when I was feeling discouraged and was seeking comfort, a passage from the book of Jeremiah stood out: "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart" (29:11-13). The key words, which had strong meaning for me, were "And ye shall seek me." We must turn away from evil in seeking God because God is good and is not found in evil. Evil, in fact, has no real substance or power. We don't find light by searching the dark shadows. Neither do we find ourselves, God's reflection, by searching outside God.
The first chapter of the Bible's first book, Genesis, tells how God created the light, divided it from the darkness, and called the light good. Understanding this, the Hebrew leader Moses bore witness to the one true God and His universe. His consciousness was so filled with the truth that he was able to talk with God, ask questions of Him, and receive answers. Ultimately he received a mighty blueprint from God for the evangelization of mankind, the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 20:3-17). Under God's direction, Moses was able to master a serpent, turning it into a staff of support. This allowed him to lead the Israelites out of captivity, across the Red Sea, into a new land of hope and fulfillment.
Christ Jesus, whom the Bible calls God's "only begotten Son," said, according to the book of John: "He that seeth me seeth him that sent me. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness" (12:45, 46). The Science of Christ, discovered by Mary Baker Eddy, shows that this statement is a basis on which to heal as Jesus did. It is the understanding of spiritual identity, exemplified by Jesus, that the textbook of this Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, shows to be essential to our salvation. We read this: "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick" (pp. 476-477).
The more I understand the Science of Christ, the more I understand that God never created an evil person, nor a sick person, nor a mortal person. God created us good and immortal. And God created all that really is.
I've found great inspiration in an account from the Bible that tells of a woman who had been deformed for eighteen years (see Luke 13:11-17). This woman, in spite of her long affliction, was reaching for perfection. And she found it, for when Jesus saw her he called her to him; he had only a compassionate view of her as God's spiritual, perfect daughter. He told her she was free. And the Bible says that instantly she was healed. The understanding Jesus had of her unburdened, faithful, spiritual identity freed her!
Sometimes I've been burdened. At times of caring for loved ones, or of just being responsible for myself, I've felt a little like that woman might have felt. And to know myself as God's spiritual child at times such as these has helped me find freedom from those feelings, understanding that God made me perfect. I've come to see that I cannot lose my joy or my purposeful activity when I understand how God made me and when I reject that suffering, sorrowful, mortal sense of identity. What is not good is no part of God, and therefore no part of me.
Each of us can be the representative of God -- of good. This is done in bearing witness only to one all-powerful creator, and to the identity He alone created, spiritual identity.
