When Christ Jesus said, "I and my Father are one," he was declaring the truth about his real selfhood, in the image and likeness of God. That this truth applies to each and every one of us is indicated in another of his statements: "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." Christian Science reveals the fact that in our true being we are the children of God and one with our divine Principle.

Man's oneness with God is brought out clearly in the Bible. It is evident that if man is the image and likeness of God, as the first chapter of Genesis plainly declares, man must coexist with God. Man expresses God as a ray of sunshine reflects the sun. There is no separation between man and God, and man never fell from his perfect state of existence. Our revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, writes in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 282), "Whatever indicates the fall of man or the opposite of God or God's absence, is the Adam-dream, which is neither Mind nor man, for it is not begotten of the Father."

The testimony of the physical senses presents a false picture of existence as divorced from Spirit, God, and expressed in materiality. The real man, being purely spiritual and coexistent with God, cannot be imprisoned in matter. The rays of the sun shine into a room, bathing everything therein with light. But no matter how quickly we close the shutters, we can never imprison the rays of sunshine. When the shutters are closed the rays are still intact, still maintaining their connection with the sun, filling garden and field with warmth and beauty. As the rays of light coexist with the sun, so our spiritual selfhood coexists with God, Spirit. In this connection it is helpful to study our Leader's statement (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 344), "If we say that the sun stands for God, then all his rays collectively stand for Christ, and each separate ray for men and women." We should face every human problem armed with the knowledge of our spiritual coexistence with God and the nothingness of anything that would separate us from Him—sin, disease, and death included.

We demonstrate man's unity with God by knowing God's allness and oneness and the nothingness of matter. Because God, Spirit, is All-in-all, there is no matter. Sin, disease, and death are unreal because they do not come from God, who is the only creator. The understanding of this truth destroys the false belief that we can be separated from divine Love and reveals the great realities of Life, bringing to light our birthright as sons of God.

Our consciousness of man's oneness with the Father can be utilized wherever we find ourselves, on the battlefield, in the shop or factory, or in the sickroom. Evil cannot abide in the consciousness which is in constant unity with divine Love. When confronted with lack, suffering, sorrow, discord, or death, one can confidently realize man's oneness with God, knowing that because these things cannot touch God they cannot touch His child, made in His image. This work, faithfully done, results in the destruction of false beliefs and the restoration of harmony.

A mortal may take the line of least resistance and go with the currents of mortal thinking in which he moves every day. He is likely to think as his associates do, to like what they like, to do what they do, and to fear the same things they fear. But if we are to find true freedom, satisfaction, and happiness we must realize in ever-increasing measure that man coexists with God. We must strike out against the current of mortal thought, give up a love of popularity, forsake material concepts, and consecrate our lives to Christ, Truth.

Christ Jesus never lost sight of the great fact of man's oneness with God. He demonstrated this truth by healing the sick and raising the dead. When he visited a certain country, we are informed that a demented man who dwelt in the tombs met him. Doubtless the citizens of that country believed the condition of this person to be hopeless. But did Jesus accept the mortal verdict? No! He acknowledged but one Mind, God. He knew that spiritual man is one with divine Mind—that man reflects the one infinite intelligence. So he rebuked the error which declared that man was separated from health, harmony, perfection, and intelligence, and the victim of false belief was made whole again.

Because man coexists with God, he is one with Life. Consequently man is never for a moment separated from Life, God. The Psalmist wrote: "Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there." God is infinite, ever-present Life. The words of this Psalm indicate that, no matter what the physical senses claim, we can never get away from the loving, healing, and sustaining presence of Life. When we give up the belief in any real existence apart from God, we shall grow into the spiritual consciousness of Life which is eternal, knowing no fear, no grief, no ending.

An army must at all times maintain its lines of communication with its source of supplies; if it did not, it would soon be helpless. We need to remember at all times that because we coexist with God we cannot be separated from our source of supply. It is our divine right to realize that we are in constant unity with the source of all goodness, health, and substance. Thousands have found this spiritual fact to be the answer to their financial and business problems and give credit to Christian Science for their deliverance from want.

To declare our oneness with God is to express true humility, giving God the entire glory, and admitting that we can do nothing of ourselves; that it is God who does all. This means that we claim no ability of our own apart from Him, but realize that it is God who works in us to do His will.

To live so as to prove our oneness with God is simple when we know the way. God is Love, manifesting Himself in loving-kindness. If love for God and man fills our consciousness to the exclusion of that which is unloving, we are proving our unity with divine Love in the way that Christ Jesus taught. Our Leader made this clear when she said (Miscellany, p. 160), "To live so as to keep human consciousness in constant relation with the divine, the spiritual, and the eternal, is to individualize infinite power; and this is Christian Science."