You are precious in God’s sight

“What does it mean to be spiritual?”

At one point, I read everything I could on the topic, as Christian Science describes it, including the Bible and writings by the discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, including “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.” I also read and listened to relevant articles and recordings I found in the Christian Science periodicals. Yet, I felt I couldn’t grasp the concept in a way that felt reliable and demonstrable.

Arriving a day early to a work conference, I spent most of my free time trying to gain clarity on this, to me, ever-foggy spirituality question. I felt inspired, but I still had questions and decided to take a break and go for a jog along the ocean.

As I finished my run, I spent a moment appreciating the landscape spread out before me. The sand was crisp and white, and the sky was ablaze with a variety of soft, yet strong, shades of pinks and purples. I thought, “Well, that’s beautiful.”

Within seconds an inward voice, not my own, said, “That’s you.”

I stood dumbfounded and tearful at what I’d heard. I knew God was not saying that I was literally a part of the sunset, yet I didn’t immediately grasp the full meaning of the words I’d just received. However, I could feel that what I’d heard was real and right.

That message stayed with me and served as a flicker of light guiding me forward. And I can now better describe the fuller meaning of the words I heard that day. We’re a lot like a beautiful sunset. We are not the mixture of good and bad, clarity and confusion, that human theories say we are. No matter how complicated, mixed up, or lost we ever believe ourselves to be, the only identity God ever sees and knows is our real, spiritual identity – His, Love’s, beautiful, uncomplicated, immortal, divine, and good idea.

The Bible tells us, “Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee” (Isaiah 43:4). And Christ Jesus’ healing record as God’s “only begotten Son” (John 3:16) perfectly reflects the way God sees us – as purely good.

When Jesus healed a woman caught in adultery, the man with the leprous hand, and the man waiting for a healing at the pool of Bethesda, he didn’t examine these individuals through a material lens, worrying that complex human histories might make healing difficult or even impossible. Instead, he saw God’s children; he saw the truth of their pure, innocent spiritual identity and said, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (John 8:11); “Be thou clean” (Matthew 8:3); and “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk” (John 5:8). And the troubling human circumstances yielded to Truth, God.

Right where despair and suggestions of tangled mortal selfhoods had seemed innate, freedom, purity, and ability became evident. Since Christ, God’s message of love to humanity, is still with us today, we can follow Jesus and find healing.

God, our Father-Mother, sees us as we truly are – as the individual, definite expression of Love. How is this possible when the world can appear so broken, material, and full of hurt and disappointment? Because this seeming absence of harmony is a false view – it’s what ignorance of divine Love presents.

Science and Health assures us, “Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man’s dominion over the whole earth” (p. 14). Daily, moment-by-moment communion with God, Love, enables us to see our spiritual nature so clearly that we are able to prove more of this present reality of who and what we are. This spiritual sense arms us with the strength we need to refute the lies of material sense claiming that we’re disappointing humans instead of God’s perfect ideas.

It takes courage and a deep, growing love for God and man to resist the mental currents that pull at humanity’s attention, asking us to believe in and coast along with a mortal sense of self. This work is enriching. When we listen for God’s direction, this guides us home to seeing the child of God we truly are.

The message from God that I heard on the beach applies to everyone. It’s God saying, “You are precious in My sight. Learn and prove this fact. Love this truth not only for yourself but for your neighbor as well.”

Adapted from an article published in the Aug. 5, 2024, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.