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Immortality runs in the family

Recognizing that life, not decline, is our God-given birthright brings greater joy and freedom into our experience.

  • By Catherine de Jocas

Christian Science Perspective audio edition
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When I was taking a walk through a local cemetery, I glanced at one of the headstones and noticed that the age inscribed on it was close to my own. I consoled myself with the thought that longevity runs in my family.

Suddenly I heard an angel message, or inspiration from God, affirming, “Immortality runs in my family!”

Snap. Only five words, but such a comforting rebuke. This was God’s assurance that despite the human picture, the real Life of each of us never runs out. Instead, it runs immortally, with endless existence, because Life is another name for God.

The biblical writer Job wrestled with his own misconceptions of life when he said of mortals, “He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not” (Job 14:2). But this is not the final word, despite appearances.

Christ Jesus gave the world a totally different view of Life. He understood that he was God’s precious Son, and as it says in the Bible, he knew that God “had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God” (John 13:3). His resurrection permanently dispelled the illusion that life is in matter and therefore transient.

Mary Baker Eddy, the author of the textbook of Christian Science, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” writes: “Chronological data are no part of the vast forever. Time-tables of birth and death are so many conspiracies against manhood and womanhood” (p. 246).

We can take solace that the immortal Life of each one of us is the reality. Recognizing this enables us to daily avail ourselves of its zest and joy, saying with the prophet Isaiah, “The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day” (Isaiah 38:19).

Adapted from the Sept. 10, 2020, Christian Science Daily Lift podcast.

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