Perfect connections

Our lives are full of important connections. Whether it's the wires through which electricity flows, or the chemistry of interpersonal relations, you'd probably say that when things go smoothly, connections are a good thing. Then again, when things aren't right, you may be tempted to view life as a series of disconnects.

In the realm of the material, what crisply links up one day may corrode, erode, snap, or tear apart the next. We may even get to a point where we feel insecure just because things might let us down later.

But a new way of looking at connections takes away this sense of their fragility. It is the spiritual view of all true activity as centered in God. Spiritually speaking, everything that has being is connected solely to the creator, and expresses God. In God, all is perfect and integral.

Electricity seems to come into a home or business from an external energy source; it runs along wires connecting this distant source to an object, such as a lamp or computer. But this apparently entirely material process can point to something higher. Spiritually viewed, the source of all energy is the divine Spirit. This supreme source of energy needs no connections to bridge any gulf of separation. Spirit is omnipresent, everywhere. The real source of energy for all creation is God, and the outpouring of divine energy is totally harmless, useful, and utterly dependable.

Knowing this spiritual fact can help! At one crucial time, prayer helped me grasp this truth of energy as spiritual. And the immediate result of this understanding was the reconnection of wiring on some sound equipment that two engineers had previously failed to fix for an increasingly irate client.

Understanding connectedness in a more spiritual way is also helpful when human relationships are strained. We may find our hearts broken, or feel the void of no genuine connectedness to family, friends, or neighbors.

Spiritually viewed, however, the one relationship everyone truly has is with divine Love, a universal source of affection that is unwavering. The relationship we each have to God is seen in our reflection of Him. We are each God's image and likeness. And this is a connection that Christ Jesus proved to exist. He proved it in healing the sick as well as those in need of a moral makeover.

Everyone truly has the perfect connection to God that Jesus taught. And all our human relationships can reflect something of the divine nature. We can prove them to be responsive to divine Love. God's sons and daughters are united to one another by their common bond with their creator. Every human relationship, examined in this light, will give more evidence of unity with infinite Love.

This establishes a spiritual basis for expecting good relationships. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," a seminal book on spiritual healing written by Mary Baker Eddy, states, "The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history" (pgs. 470-471).

Understanding this makes a tangible difference in our problems. When discord seems to creep into your relationships, pray to see the unbroken harmony that God sustains. Then harmony will, in some way, become apparent.

I've seen this on different occasions, after some rift has developed between me and another person. In a way it happens daily! That is, to the degree I let my knowledge of the way we each reflect God's goodness dictate how I view my relationship to others, I have found that this tempers reactions, builds trust, and maintains mutual affection.

When you gain and sustain more harmony in your life through prayer, this proves to you that everything is connected spiritually - perfectly - to God. And that nothing can cause a disconnect.

You can read articles like this one in 13 different language editions of The Herald of Christian Science.