1. Appearances deceive but can be changed. Reality is changeless. It does not deceive at all, and if you fail to see beyond appearances you are deceived. For everything you see will change, and yet you thought it real before, and now you think it real again. Reality is thus reduced to form, and capable of change. Reality is changeless. It is this that makes it real, and keeps it separate from all appearances. It must transcend all form to be itself. It cannot change.
2. The miracle is means to demonstrate that all appearances can change because they are appearances and cannot have the changelessness reality entails. The miracle attests salvation from appearances by showing they can change. Your brother has a changelessness in him beyond appearance and deception, both. It is obscured by changing views of him that you perceive as his reality. The happy dream about him takes the form of the appearance of his perfect health, his perfect freedom from all forms of lack, and safety from disaster of all kinds. The miracle is proof he is not bound by loss or suffering in any form, because it can so easily be changed. This demonstrates that it was never real and could not stem from his reality. For that is changeless and has no effects that anything in Heaven or on earth could ever alter. But appearances are shown to be unreal because they change.
3. What is temptation but a wish to make illusions real? It does not seem to be the wish that no reality be so. Yet it is an assertion that some forms of idols have a powerful appeal that makes them harder to resist than those you would not want to have reality. Temptation, then, is nothing more than this: a prayer the miracle touch not some dreams but keep their unreality obscure and give to them reality instead. And Heaven gives no answer to the prayer, nor can a miracle be given you to heal appearances you do not like. You have established limits. What you ask is given you, but not of God Who knows no limits. You have limited yourself.
4. Reality is changeless. Miracles but show what you have interposed between reality and your awareness is unreal and does not interfere at all. The cost of the belief there must be some appearances beyond the hope of change is that the miracle cannot come forth from you consistently. For you have asked it be withheld from power to heal all dreams. There is no miracle you cannot have when you desire healing. But there is no miracle that can be given you unless you want it. Choose what you would heal, and He Who gives all miracles has not been given freedom to bestow His gifts upon God’s Son. When he is tempted, he denies reality. And he becomes the willing slave of what he chose instead.
5. Because reality is changeless is a miracle already there to heal all things that change and offer them to you to see in happy form, devoid of fear. It will be given you to look upon your brother thus. But not while you would have it otherwise in some respects. For this but means you would not have him healed and whole. The Christ in him is perfect. Is it this that you would look upon? Then let there be no dreams about him that you would prefer to seeing this. And you will see the Christ in him because you let Him come to you. And when He has appeared to you, you will be certain you are like Him, for He is the changeless in your brother and in you.
6. This will you look upon when you decide there is not one appearance you would hold in place of what your brother really is. Let no temptation to prefer a dream allow uncertainty to enter here. Be not made guilty and afraid when you are tempted by a dream of what he is. But do not give it power to replace the changeless in him in your sight of him. There is no false appearance but will fade if you request a miracle instead. There is no pain from which he is not free if you would have him be but what he is. Why should you fear to see the Christ in him? You but behold yourself in what you see. As he is healed are you made free of guilt, for his appearance is your own to you. [1]
Miracles heal our perception. When I can see past all your humanity to the Son of God within you, I will see you only in happiness and joy. I will no longer see the things about you that annoy or irritate me; I will not remember all your past wrongdoing and ruminate upon it in my mind. Because the miracle sweeps away all temptation I would have to make you over in the image of what I want you to be to me, now I see you as the Christ you are. Now I can look on you with only thoughts of healing and wholeness. Now I hold nothing back from you, worried that you may get ahead of me, that your light may shine brighter, that my light may grow dim. All the fears and concerns that I would be tempted to have about you, the miracle washes away for they were fears and concerns based upon appearances and not the reality of you.
As we practice these concepts in our daily life with the people, circumstances, and events that provide daily grist for the mill, we will recognize how seemingly impossible these are to apply in the flesh. For in the flesh, appearances are all we have! It is impossible for me to see past the ways you let me down, fail to live up to my expectations, and leave a trail of detritus behind you unless I ask for the miracle. And unless I ask for the miracle, I would keep you unhealed and unholy, separated from me, punished for your imperfection for without the miracle I cannot see the perfect Christ in you, nor could you ever see it in me!
This is the time for decision in our lives. We make the choice to see the Christ in each other and nothing else. We will have hundreds if not thousands of times each day to make this choice until we make it without decision, until the miracle becomes natural to us through our devotion and commitment to Christ and to each other.
Christ is the changeless in us and Christ is past all appearances – every single one. To choose whom we are going to see Christ in is not our function. We see Christ in all, or we continue to defeat ourselves, to flop about in uncertainty, doubt, and inconsistent miracle working which only prolongs time and suffering, making our journey to God circuitous and torturous.
Jesus instructs us not to judge who is worthy of Christ and who is not. Although we may still be tempted to mistake our dreams of the world and each other for reality, we are to give no power to any appearance of unholiness. Nothing can change the Son of God – not in Heaven nor in earth. Appearances will deceive us only when we trust in them and give them the power of our belief. And they will always change, thus proving their unreality.
In our daily practice, we learn to look upon each other beyond appearances. To do this we ask for the miracle. We go to Holy Spirit within, we ask our inner Christ to let us see past the perceptions we have of one another in the flesh – to hear beyond the whiny or argumentative tone, to see past the unjust and cruel, the tedious and boring, the idolatry we have with youth and beauty, the fear we have of aging and death. Appearances are false for they change, and they fade, and when we ask for a miracle this becomes so immediately apparent to us so that we can see past all perception of form to the Christ within.
When I see you as Christ, I see Christ in me, for how I decide to look for and what I decide to see in you is how I decide to look for and what I decide to see in me. This is how we are healed. Jesus instructs us not to look for healing outside of this miracle practice, for if we do, our healing will fade, the drugs will fail us just as the hope we have in any illusion will never see us through for it is only when we reach for Christ within that true healing can occur. In Christ we find the joining that restores our sense of wholeness and well-being.
Yesterday I found myself getting so worked up over what I saw as wrongful charges on my credit card bill. I was dismayed over a subscription that had automatically been renewed and charged me for services I no longer need. I was finding it particularly trying to think of a certain someone as Christ! When I realized that these thoughts were bringing me low, I asked Holy Spirit to let me see Christ where no appearance of Christ seemed to be. I asked James to pray with me, and almost immediately the troubled state of mind was replaced by one of peace. I spoke with kindness to all the people I dealt with on the phone. Each issue became an opportunity to practice what I teach. It is much easier to instruct and encourage others to take each circumstance that comes up in their lives to Holy Spirit than to always remember to do it myself.
Today ask Holy Spirit to help you see past all appearances. Do not be afraid to see Christ in every encounter but look for Christ. For when we reach for Christ in each other, we reach Christ in ourselves, and we are healed.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Chapter 30 The new beginning viii changeless reality. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
For daily 2021 Workbook lessons, visit www.i-choose-love.com courtesy of Linda R.
Audio credit: www.eckiefriar.com.
the friar patch 