OrEd-T-17.4-Shadows of the Past.2
20. What remains is eternal if all unloving thoughts have been forgotten, and the transformed past does not conflict with the present. This harmony extends the present, increasing its reality and value in my perception. The spark of beauty comes alive with loving thoughts, as the relationship is given to Him who gives it life and beauty. No longer is the spark hidden in the ugliness of the unholy relationship in which the hatred is remembered. And separation must be corrected where it was made. That is why Atonement centers on the past, the source of separation, and where it must be undone. But the ego does not seek to "resolve" its problems at their source, and so it guarantees there will be no solution.
21. The Holy Spirit wills His resolutions to be complete and perfect, so He finds the source of problems and undoes it. With each step in His undoing, the separation is more undone and union brought closer. He is not confused by any "reasons" for separation. He perceives only that separation must be undone. I will let Him uncover and show me the hidden spark of beauty in my relationships. As its loveliness attracts me, I will not lose sight of it again. I will seek for and establish conditions so this beauty can be seen.
22. As I let Him hold the spark before me to light and make clear my way, I will do all this gladly. God's Son is one. The ego cannot break apart what God has joined as one. However hidden it may be, the spark of holiness must be safe in every relationship. For the Creator of the one relationship has left no part of it without Himself.
23. The Holy Spirit sees only this part of the relationship because only this is true. By not seeing it as it is, I have made the relationship unreal and unholy. I am willing to give the past to Him Who can change my mind about it for me. But, first I must realize fully what I have made the past to represent and why.
24. The past is now my justification for entering into a continuing unholy alliance with the ego against the present. For the present is forgiveness. Therefore, the relationships which this unholy alliance dictates are not perceived nor felt as the present. The frame of reference for the present, is those aspects of the past illusion, that fit the purpose of the ego alliance. These illusory aspects are retained, and the rest let go. All the witnesses the past could offer for the reality of truth, are let go. What is kept witnesses only to the reality of dreams.
25. I will choose to join with either truth or illusion. But, to choose one is to let the other go. I can only choose between God and the ego. The one I choose, I will endow with beauty and reality, because I value it more. Thought systems are either true or false, and all their attributes come from what they are. Truth or illusion, the spark of beauty or the veil of ugliness, freedom or slavery, the real world or the world of guilt and fear, --it is all the same. Only the Thoughts of God are true, and all that comes from them is as true as their Holy Source.
26. Jesus is my holy brother. He would enter into all my relationships, stepping between me and my fantasies. His relationship is real to me, and he will bring reality to my perception of my brothers. They were not created to enable me to hurt myself through them. They were created to create with me. This is the truth that Jesus would interpose between me and my goal of madness. I will not be separate from Jesus, and I will not let the holy purpose of Atonement be lost to me in dreams of vengeance. Relationships in which such dreams are cherished have excluded Jesus. I will let Jesus enter in the Name of God and bring me peace, that I may offer peace to him.
