Lesson 161 from A Course in Miracles invites us to radically reimagine how we see one another. Not as bodies. Not as threats. Yet as the holy Sons of God—each a mirror of our own salvation. The practice begins with a simple prayer:
“Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.
I would behold you with the eyes of Christ, and see my perfect sinlessness in you.”
This is more than a poetic metaphor. It is a spiritual tool. It dismantles the ego’s projection of fear and reveals the Christ in the one we thought was our enemy.
Jesus’s own words to his disciples echo this truth:
“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for Me.”
(Matthew 25:40.)
Here, we’re reminded that how we see and treat one another is how we relate to Christ Himself. If we see only behavior or history, we miss the sacred. Yet if we allow Christ’s vision, we see not only who our brother is—we remember who we are.
The Course acknowledges how hard this is. Our minds have been trained to see in fragments, not wholeness. We see specifics—like a tone of voice, a past injury, or a label. Yet beneath every image lies the one truth:
“One brother is all brothers. Every mind contains all minds, for every mind is one.”
This mirrors Paul’s teaching to the early church:
“Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”
(Colossians 3:11.)
When we look past distinctions, we begin to see through the eyes of God. The surface no longer divides. The ego’s judgments no longer define. Christ is all—and is in all.
Yet we cannot get there by pretending. The mind has to be retrained. The Course says:
“We need to see a little, that we learn a lot.”
So we choose one brother. One symbol of the whole. Also we practice seeing differently. We look past the body and its history, and we ask to see the Light within.
Even in the Hebrew scriptures, this principle is clear. When Samuel is sent to anoint a new king, he’s told:
“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
(1 Samuel 16:7.)
Also when Jacob meets Esau—after years of conflict and fear—he says:
“For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably.”
(Genesis 33:10.)
What if every face were that? Not a threat. Not a memory. Yet a portal into forgiveness?
The Course tells us:
“Who sees a brother as a body sees him as fear’s symbol.”
Also John reminds us:
“For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”
(1 John 4:20.)
Our relationship with God is not abstract. It’s revealed in how we see the one in front of us. If we attack him—even silently—we are making love an enemy. Yet if we ask for his blessing, we will see the Christ in him. Also in that reflection, we will see the Christ in ourselves.
The path may not feel easy, yet it opens the way forward. Today’s lesson meets us in our humanity and asks only for a sincere shift in perception. To choose vision over judgment. To see the heart, not the form. Let one holy encounter begin to undo what fear has built over time.