OrEd-T-17.5-Perception & Two Worlds.2
35. I will look at the picture and not let the frame distract me. Without the picture I cannot have the frame. What I value is the frame, for there I see no conflict. Yet the frame is only the wrapping, and conflict is the gift. This gift is given me for my damnation, and if I take it, I will believe that I am damned. Death lies in this glittering gift. Let me not gaze on the hypnotic gleaming of the frame. I will look instead at the picture, and realize that death is offered me. The most superficial aspect of this thought system is deceiving, for it encloses the whole, complete in every aspect.
36. That is why the holy instant is so important in the defense of truth. The truth itself needs no defense, but I need defense against my acceptance of the gift of death. When I accept an idea so dangerous to truth, I threaten truth, and my self, with destruction. And my defense must now be undertaken to keep truth whole. The power of Heaven, the love of God, the tears of Christ, and the joy of His eternal Spirit are marshaled to defend me from my own attack. For I attack Them, being part of Them and They must save me, for They love Themselves.
37. The holy instant, sent to me from Heaven, is a miniature of Heaven. It is a picture, too, set in a frame. Yet, if I accept this gift, I will not see the frame at all, because the gift can be accepted only by my willingness to focus all my attention on the picture. It is a picture of timelessness, set in a frame of time. The holy instant is a miniature of eternity. As I focus on the picture, I will realize that it was only the frame that made me think it was a picture. Without the frame, the picture is seen as the reality of what it represents. For as the whole thought system of the ego lies in its gifts, so the whole of Heaven lies in this instant, borrowed from eternity and set in time for me.
38. Two gifts are offered me. Each is complete and cannot be partially accepted. Each is a picture of all that I can have, seen very differently. I cannot compare their value by comparing a picture to a frame. It must be only the pictures that I compare, or the comparison is wholly without meaning. I remember that it is the picture that is the gift. And only on this basis am I really free to choose. I look at the pictures. Both of them. One is a tiny picture, hard to see at all beneath the heavy shadows of its enormous and disproportionate enclosure. The other is lightly framed and hung in light, lovely to look upon for what it is.
39. I have tried so hard, and am still trying to fit the better picture into the wrong frame, and so combine what cannot be combined. I will accept this and be glad. These pictures are each perfectly framed for what they represent. One is framed to be out of focus and not seen. The other is framed for perfect clarity. The picture of darkness and of death grows less convincing as I search it out amid its wrappings. Each stone that seems to shine, becomes dull and lifeless as it is exposed to light, and the frame no longer distracts me from the picture. At last I look on the picture itself, and see it has no meaning.
40. The other picture is lightly framed, for time cannot contain eternity. There is no distraction here. The picture of Heaven and eternity grows more convincing as I look at it. And with a real comparison, transformation of both pictures now can occur. When both are seen in relation to each other, each is given its rightful place. The fact that the dark picture with the heavy frame is just a picture is brought home at last. Seen in light, it is not perceived as fearful, but only a picture of what I thought was real and nothing more. For beyond this picture, there is nothing to see.
41. The picture of light, in clear cut and unmistakable contrast, is transformed into what lies beyond the picture. As I look on this, I realize that it is not a picture, but a reality. This is no figured representation of a thought system, but the Thought Itself. What it represents is there. The frame fades gently, and God rises to my remembrance, offering me the whole of creation, in exchange for my little picture that is wholly without value and entirely deprived of meaning.
42. As God ascends into His rightful place in my mind, and me to mine, I will experience the meaning of relationship and know it is true. Together with Jesus, I ascend in peace to the Father, by giving God ascendance in my mind. Giving Him the power and the glory, we gain everything, keeping no illusions of where the power and glory are, for they are in us through His ascendance. What He has given is His. It shines in every part of Him as in the whole. The whole reality of my relationship with Him lies in our relationship to one another. The holy instant shines alike on all relationships, for in it they are one. For here is healing, already complete and perfect. And God is here, and where He is, only the perfect and complete can be.
