Glory

I never used to think much about glory as something applying to me. In fact, if someone had asked me, I would have said that to aspire to glory was at best unrealistic - and certainly not humble.

Then one day I was praying the Lord's Prayer to myself - that all-encompassing prayer that Jesus gave to his disciples - and pondering particularly the last line as Matthew records it: ''For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.'' n1 I suddenly saw that since, according to the Bible, man is created in God's image, and this image is my real self, my eternal spiritual identity, then this kingdom, this power, and this glory must be available to me - and to everyone!

n1 Matthew 6:13.

What a wonderfully freeing revelation it was to see that in reality all of us , as God's children, live in His kingdom, reflect His power, are enfolded in His glory.

One of the dictionary definitions of ''glory'' is ''the splendor and beatific happiness of heaven.'' This ''happiness of heaven'' is within the grasp of every one of us because it's the provable spiritual truth of our being. So in spite of the sometimes difficult challenges of mortal existence, we can begin to attain the glory of heaven. How? By humbly, consistently - reverently - striving to do God's will, to be directed by divine Truth and Love.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scripturesm: ''Through the wholesome chastisements of Love, we are helped onward in the march towards righteousness, peace, and purity, which are the landmarks of Science. Beholding the infinite tasks of truth, we pause, - wait on God. Then we push onward, until boundless thought walks enraptured, and conception unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory.'' n2

n2 Science and Health, p. 323.

As we're alert to what we allow into consciousness, striving to entertain only pure, loving, Godlike thoughts - thoughts that characterize our true nature as God's likeness - we govern ourselves harmoniously, regardless of what seems to be going on around us. We come to see, and prove, that we aren't helpless victims of others' actions; that we can't, as God's offspring, be unemployed or deprived of what we genuinely need. And we help bring that truth to light for humanity as a whole. To the degree that we steadfastly refuse to hamper ourselves with material goals and seek first the kingdom of God, we can experience, here and now in our everyday existence, the glory of heavenly goodness and happiness.

Are you thinking this is all too simplistic, in these days of bitter competition and struggle for survival? The fact is that no evil can ever exist in the real - and in truth, the only - universe, the kingdom of heaven. In divine reality we are all citizens of this kingdom, in which restrictive material laws of sickness and lack have no presence. Our work is to prove this.

The selfless, persistent effort to maintain purity of thought, to reject whatever is unworthy of God, is our responsibility as heaven's citizens. Unkind criticism, fear of sickness, worry, despair - not one of these attitudes of thought belongs to our real being. And all will fall away to the extent that we accept and live our God-given identity. As His children, we are governed onlym by the laws of Hism kingdom, untouched by the frightening beliefs of material existence.

In Colossians Paul writes, ''Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. . . . When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.'' n3

God's glory is yours today, and you can begin to prove it.

n3 Colossians 3:2, 4.

DAILY BIBLE VERSE The wise shall inherit glory. Proverbs 3:35ssians 3:2, 4.