When I visited the Rwandan genocide memorial in Kigali, I thought it would feel overwhelming. Instead, something unexpectedly healing stayed with me.
The museum leads visitors through three sections related to the conflict: before, during, and after. Continuing through, you emerge into the sunny outdoors, right into a vast rose garden. Roses stretch in every direction, luminous and alive. Small signs posted every few feet invite reflection on how each life is like a rose: unique and irreplaceable.
I found myself thinking about our spiritual individuality – that what is most real in each of us is not material or fragile, but spiritual and enduring.
Christian Science identifies God as the one, infinite Mind and man as Mind’s individualized expression, or idea. Spiritual individuality doesn’t develop from our history or reside in matter. Man’s real identity is the expression of God, Spirit, and therefore not at the mercy of matter or material conditions. Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer of Christian Science, wrote, “In Science, form and individuality are never lost, thoughts are outlined, individualized ideas, which dwell forever in the divine Mind as tangible, true substance, because eternally conscious” (“Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896,” p. 103).
Christian Science does not teach that our individuality lives on materially after death, but points to a deeper reality: that each of us is wholly spiritual and eternal, rooted in God’s infinite being. When we have suffered loss, or our view of humanity in world events feels bleak, it becomes especially important to understand what we all truly are. Prayer lifts thought above darkness and despair by revealing our true nature as sacred and God-derived.
Christ Jesus proved this. He consistently challenged the belief that life and identity are material. Through his healing works, he demonstrated the permanence of true, spiritual being. Above all, his resurrection and ascension showed that evil does not get the final word. What God, good, creates and maintains cannot be destroyed.
Three of Jesus’ disciples glimpsed this reality at his transfiguration, where they also discerned Moses and Elias (Elijah) talking with Jesus (see Matthew 17:1-8). The identity of Moses and Elias was unchanged – Jesus and his disciples witnessed the permanence of their individuality. As thought becomes more spiritualized, we become increasingly aware of our real being.
The Christ, the practical Truth present in human consciousness, continually reveals our true identity to us as not beginning at birth or ending with death. Sourced in God, it is continuous and remains intact. Mrs. Eddy expressed this conviction following the passing of Christian Science teacher and lecturer Edward A. Kimball, writing that he was “here now as veritably as when he visited me a year ago” (“The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” p. 297). She was affirming the fundamental truth in Science that spiritual individuality, man’s only real being, cannot be interrupted – cannot die.
As we recognize that man’s genuine attributes, such as goodness, intelligence, and love, have a divine source, we glimpse this same truth and the unending nature of these qualities. Each individual expresses divine Life uniquely and irreplaceably. Our spiritual individuality is intact and safe.
When our loved ones pass from our sight, what stays is the experience of their love and their unique contribution. We can glimpse the eternal nature of their being by seeing what is divinely true about man and by cultivating grace, humility, and attentiveness to God’s presence – conditions in which that universal divine nature can more fully appear in us. Each of us has a heavenly dwelling in God that remains forever and where we coexist with all other ideas of God. No idea is ever lost.
We can live this truth by knowing God better each day. The more we know of God, the more we know of man’s true selfhood. When we think and act from our God-reflected individuality, we naturally bring light and healing wherever we go. Mrs. Eddy asks, “How shall we reach our true selves?” and answers, “Through Love.” She continues, “I will love, if another hates. I will gain a balance on the side of good, my true being” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 104). The Christ reveals our genuine selfhood, sinless and whole, and enables us to live in accord with it.
As those commemorative roses seemed to be reminding visitors, the individuality of man includes a timeless uniqueness and remains constant when everything outward disappears. What God creates remains forever in divine Life, intact and enduring. Life is continually revealing what is good and true about each of us, always.
Adapted from an editorial published in the July 6, 2026, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
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