What is your birthright?

In biblical times, and in some cultures today, a birthright entitles a first-born to blessings derived solely from priority in birth order. Christian Science teaches, however, that the true birthright of each one of us is to be the beloved child of God, and opens our lives to freedom from the limitations associated with human existence.

Each of us is entitled to be, indeed is, the child of a perfect, wholly good, Father-Mother God. We are never born into material circumstances and were never destined to inherit a mix of good and bad traits from human parents.. Our origin is never really in a “birth,” but is forever derived from our oneness with all that God is.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” “Jesus acknowledged no ties of the flesh. ... He recognized Spirit, God, as the only creator, and therefore as the Father of all” (p. 31). Jesus knew and relied on his birthright of divine sonship and trusted God’s power to heal. Encountering a man who’d been born blind, he rebuked his disciples’ attempt to identify a cause of the condition, knowing that the man was one with his divine Parent, God, and he healed him.

Looking to God as the one Parent of us all has guided me in parenting. This has included seeing each of my two sons as inheriting all good from their divine Father-Mother.

During my pregnancy with our first son, there were complications, accompanied by predictions that he would be born prematurely with possible abnormalities. This resulted in a week-long hospital stay. It was a challenging but prayerful time for my husband and me.

With the prayers of a Christian Science practitioner, early contractions (that medical intervention had been unable to arrest) stopped, and bleeding was stanched. An ultrasound revealed that the issue believed to have caused the bleeding had been resolved. Observation continued for the week, but with no medication required.

At one point, I overheard a nurse say that another patient was about to lose her premature child, and possibly her own life. As the practitioner and I continued to pray about my own pregnancy, a thought hit me: that every child is a perfectly formed, entirely spiritual idea of God. I pondered this for hours for myself but also broadened my prayers to include all children and parents.

The next day, I heard that the other child and mother were doing well. While I don’t claim this healing was the result of these prayers alone, this reversal of the dire predictions gave me confidence. Two months later, our son was born just a week before his due date. Though the hospital required many tests, he was found to be perfectly healthy.

This healing prepared us to adopt our second son seven years later. He was born prematurely, and as we prayed, clear, reassuring inspiration came. There were many required medical tests, but despite being underweight, he was found to be totally healthy. Within six months, he was a normal weight and a happy, active baby.

Sometimes challenges keep coming, and discouragement sets in. But I have found the words in Hymn 382 from the “Christian Science Hymnal” (Emily F. Seal) to be a complete prayer of affirmation about the spiritual birthright to which each one of us is entitled.

The hymn begins with the question, “What is thy birthright, man,” and the next line answers by affirming our oneness with God: “Child of the perfect One.” Our identity, our birthright, is child of the perfect One – God – and we each inherit, by divine right, all good. Challenges and discouragement are dim shadows dispelled by God, Truth, who knows us each as His perfect child.

“What is thy Father’s plan / For His beloved son?” the hymn continues. “Thou art Truth’s honest child, / Of pure and sinless heart.” And as Truth’s honest child, we each walk “undefiled / In Christly paths apart” – safe and cared for. Nothing defiles God’s children. And all the fears that seem so powerful can be recognized, as the hymn says, as “phantoms” that must “flee before the light” of this understanding.

Finally, when we take “the sacred rod” of authority that directs and governs, we are “not error’s thrall,” enslaved by what’s not true about our identity. We can defend everyone’s inheritance of all that God, Truth, is, which includes a most precious gift: “Dominion over all” that is unlike God, good.

What a birthright!

Adapted from an article published in the Sept. 18, 2023, issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.