All one with God
As we come to understand that we are all included in God’s divine family, feelings of loneliness and despondency are lifted.
Many years ago I was going through a transitional time of life when it seemed I was without many friends or peers. I had just started staying home from a job I enjoyed to do a job I loved: being a full-time mom to my kids. But as I didn’t have any friends with children and no longer had colleagues to talk to, my days stretched out pretty long and lonely.
During this time, I came across an article in the Christian Science Sentinel called “Turning ‘alone’ into ‘all one’” by Dora E. Henry (July 3, 2006). The author was in a very solitary time in her life but found that alone time was a good time to be “all one” with God. She treasured her newfound quiet time alone to listen for and hear more clearly the joyful, peaceful ideas that God, who is infinite Mind, shares with everyone each moment. And she didn’t feel lonely with all those good ideas surrounding her!
In the Bible, we read of people who found that God was right there with them and bolstering them with uplifting ideas even in troubling times. For example, at one point a man named Jacob was fearful and alone. Then an inspired thought from God came. As Jacob wrestled with this new thought and welcomed it in, he was blessed, and eventually he reunited with an estranged brother and his extended family.
The founder of the Monitor and discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, relied wholeheartedly on the Bible and its message of salvation. Her in-depth study of the Bible brought a deeper understanding of this closeness with God that each of us has. She describes it this way: “As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 361).
What an apt analogy for the relation between God and His children. We express God, the one creator, and since God is Spirit, we are entirely spiritual. Like individual drops of water in the seemingly infinite ocean, as God’s children we are each completely united with God, the divine Principle undergirding all life – in fact, God is Life itself. We are never truly alone.
As such, we all move together, expressing God-given unity and wholeness. We’re not the same as God or as each other, but we reflect spiritual qualities from the one God in individual and beautiful ways. As mortals we may seem small or insignificant, but as God’s spiritual offspring we are one with the whole ocean – with God and with each other.
In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, having studied Christ Jesus’ words and works, explains in a speech this oneness with God and what it means for humanity: “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow – not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below – indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38, 39, New Living Translation).
As I prayed with these spiritual facts, the sense of loneliness effortlessly and naturally dropped away. I saw that it didn’t have any substance or power to paralyze the harmony of my life, because it was a lie about my spiritual oneness with God and with all His sons and daughters. I was not alone, and had only to look around me to see the evidence of God’s love and support everywhere. Opportunities soon arose to join a neighborhood social group and a local church, and to this day, over 15 years later, the people I met during that time remain a part of my life.
We are all included in the grand divine family of God’s children, all of us one with God, the divine Principle. When we open our eyes to all the goodness of God, to the infinite Love that’s expressed in and around us, we feel how the harmonious Life that is God unites all of us in one loving family. We are never alone; we are all one with God.