Remember that it is the picture that is the gift. You always choose …

between truth and illusion;

 between the real “Atonement” and the ego's "atonement".

 It is not a picture, but a reality.

Truth has no meaning in illusion. The frame of reference for its meaning must be itself. When you try to bring truth to illusions, you are trying to make illusions real, and keep them by justifying your belief in them. ACiM - Text Chapter Seventeen - Forgiveness and the Holy Relationship - Section 1 - Bringing Fantasy to Truth

When you seem to see some twisted form of the original error rising to frighten you, say only, "God is not fear, but love," and it will disappear. The truth will save you. ACiM - Text Chapter Eighteen - The Passing of the Dream - Section 1 - The Substitute Reality

To forgive is merely to remember only the loving thoughts you gave in the past, and those that were given you. All the rest must be forgotten. Forgiveness is a selective remembering, based not on your selection. That is why Atonement centers on the past, which is the source of separation, and where it must be undone. For separation must be corrected where it was made. ACiM - Text Chapter Seventeen - Forgiveness and the Holy Relationship - Section 3 - Shadows of the Past (see also Commitment, the acid test of forgiveness or This is the acid test of forgiveness. )

Remember that you always choose between truth and illusion; between the real Atonement (at-one-ment) that would heal and the ego's "atonement" ( atone-ment ) that would destroy. ACiM Text - Chapter Sixteen - The Forgiveness of Illusions - Section 7 - The End of Illusions

The emphasis of this course always remains the same;--it is at this moment that complete salvation is offered you, and it is at this moment that you can accept it. This is still your one responsibility. Atonement might be equated with total escape from the past and total lack of interest in the future. Heaven is here. There is nowhere else. Heaven is now. There is no other time. No teaching that does not lead to this is of concern to God's teachers. All beliefs will point to this if properly interpreted. In this sense, it can be said that their truth lies in their usefulness. All beliefs that lead to progress should be honored. This is the sole criterion this course requires. No more than this is necessary. ACiM - Manual for Teachers - Section 24 - Is Reincarnation So? Read also, HEAVEN - HERE – NOW Jane Woodward

In this world it is impossible to create. Yet it is possible to make happy. ACiM - Text Chapter Seventeen - Forgiveness and the Holy Relationship - Section 4 - The Two Pictures

The holy instant is a miniature of Heaven, sent you from Heaven. It is a picture, too, set in a frame. Yet if you accept this gift you will not see the frame at all, because the gift can only be accepted through your willingness to focus all your attention on the picture. The holy instant is a miniature of eternity. It is a picture of timelessness, set in a frame of time. If you focus on the picture, you will realize that it was only the frame that made you think it was a picture. Without the frame, the picture is seen as 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 you.

Two gifts are offered you. Each is a picture of all that you can have, seen very differently. Remember that it is the picture that is the gift. And only on this basis are you really free to choose. 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. One is framed to be out of focus and not seen. The other is framed for perfect clarity.

The picture of light, in clear-cut and unmistakable contrast, is transformed into what lies beyond the picture. As you look on this, you 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. ACiM - Text Chapter Seventeen - Forgiveness and the Holy Relationship - Section 4 - The Two Pictures