Shiny and New

"Behold, I make all things new." -- The Bible; Revelation 21:5

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." -- The Bible; 2 Corinthians 5:17

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away." -- The Bible; Revelation 21:1

"The world as you perceive it cannot have been created by the Father, for the world is not as you see it. God created only the eternal, and everything you see is perishable. Therefore, there must be another world that you do not see. The Bible speaks of a new Heaven and a new earth, yet this cannot be literally true, for the eternal are not re-created. To perceive anew is merely to perceive again, implying that before, or in the interval between, you were not perceiving at all. What, then, is the world that awaits your perception when you see it?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VII, 1:1-6

"The Revelator had not yet passed the transitional stage in human experience called death, but he already saw a new heaven and a new earth. Through what sense came this vision to St. John? The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what the eye cannot see; that which is invisible to the uninspired thought. The heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual; while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 572, Lines 23-26, & Page 573, Lines 3-12

Have you noticed that the human mind loves shiny, new things? Shiny, new ideas. Shiny, new toys. Shiny new clothes and shoes. Shiny new jewelry. Shiny new cars or appliances. Shiny new jobs. Shiny new relationships (supposedly) without old baggage. A shiny new diet or exercise plan. The concept of a fresh start is not a new one. Of course, in the way of this dream world, everything that is new now will soon grow old and pass away. "And it came to pass..." is the story of literally everyone and everything in the dream we call the world.

Every spiritual tradition and teacher agree that God is Creator, and that God is Omnipotent and Omnipresent. This means that all that IS created exists eternally within the Mind of God. Nothing unlike God could be created by God, since that would mean there is something other than God, in a place and time where God is not. Like Light, God radiates Self everywhere, omnidirectionally, omnipresently. God creates by extension, and so creates only like HimSelf, infinite, eternal, loving, and free. These are not adjectives we could reasonably apply to the world as we know it. As A Course in Miracles puts it, no matter how crazy things look, we must remember that "God is still Love, and this is not His Will." We are told to remember that "God's Will for us is perfect happiness." Love and Perfect Happiness are attributes of the Awareness of our Oneness with God.

In the quote from Mary Baker Eddy, she points out the impossibility of our human eyesight ever seeing anything real or lasting or true. Only spiritual sight reveals our Oneness with God and Our True Self. The new heavens and new earth spoken of so frequently in The Bible are what A Course in Miracles calls the Happy Dream, the shiny and new perception that leads to direct and experiential knowledge of Truth and God.

Even in the dream we are looking for our true perceptions... we just don't realize it. We think we are looking for people, places, things, and experiences outside ourselves, and we settle for shiny, new and supposedly improved versions of old stories over and over and over again. And yet the journey continues, because we can never be satisfied with less than everything. We can never be content with less than wholeness. And it is not out there. Our perceptions are in US. When the world is seen through loving and forgiving eyes, everything is translated and becomes shiny and new. And this is not just a figure of speech. This is literal. Through forgiveness the world is literally saved from our false perceptions, and what we begin to see revealed is simply what was always, eternally Present and always, eternally True.

"Everything you made will be forgotten; the good and the bad, the false and the true. For as Heaven and earth become One, even the Real World will vanish from your sight. The end of the world is not its destruction, but its translation into Heaven. The reinterpretation of the world is the transfer of all perception to knowledge." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VIII, 1:6-9