What does God have to do with the details of our daily lives, and particularly our human relationships? I asked myself this question, and at one point I thought, "I know God loves me, but why do I sometimes feel lonely?" When I said this to a friend of mine, she said, "Demonstrate it." Demonstrate God's love for man. She meant that I needed to prove He is Love by feeling and expressing His love.

"Easier said than done!" was my first reaction. Soon, however, I accepted the challenge. I knew that the truth of God and man as taught in Christian Science could be demonstrated. I had witnessed the healing effect of this practical Science time after time.

From past experience I had learned that trying to come up with solutions to my problems without prayer leads down a dead-end road. It is like trying to read a map in the dark; you end up taking a wrong turn or bumping into something. The only truly satisfying path is the way Christ Jesus showed us. It involves prayer—listening quietly for God's direction and following it. But taking that road, to borrow a phrase from the poet Robert Frost in "The Road Not Taken," makes "all the difference."

Feeling a lack of companionship and affection, I began to pray. Using the Concordance to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, I found very few references to relationship but an abundance of references to harmony. And isn't harmony what relationships are all about? People living and working and being together in a concordant fashion? Relationships should not include discord or friction or unhappy arrangements, in which one feels out of place. It seemed to me that to ponder harmony, to understand it and bring it into my daily experience, would clear up my thoughts about and approach to relationships; so I did.

Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health, "Being is holiness, harmony, immortality." ^{Science and Health, p. 492.} As I thought about what this meant to me, I saw that if being is harmony, the only thing man can possibly feel is harmony. Not only is true existence harmonious; harmony constitutes man's very being. Spiritual man, the real man, includes all harmony because he is the reflection of the infinite God.

The Bible says that God made man in His image and likeness. There is one God, so there is one expression of God, namely, man. As the expression of the infinite One, man has to manifest harmony because there are no conflicting elements in oneness. Just as a facial expression cannot be separated from a face, so harmony cannot be separated from its source, which is divine Principle, God. Man, the expression of God, cannot act independently of God.

Instead of dwelling on my human situation, I worked to hold to harmony as my true being and therefore the only thing I could know or express. Trying to figure out how to find dates or make people like me more would have been like stumbling down that dark dead-end street. Without spirituality there aren't any absolute, permanent, or satisfying solutions to the problem of how to feel loved and fulfilled. Dating for dating's sake or striving to be popular does not result in the inner calm and peace of spiritual harmony—the harmony expressed by God's man. So I devoted myself to learning more of the relationship of God and man, of Principle and its expression, and to maintaining this spiritually scientific view as my only real basis for thinking and acting.

From the first weekend after I began pondering the harmony of God and man, I felt more at peace. I found that whether I socialized or spent a lot of time alone, I felt no lack of companionship. It happened that I received two unexpected requests for dates that first weekend. But I discovered that the human element—the number of dates, friends, or outings—did not determine my peace of mind, the harmony I can never lack. And greater spiritual harmony was evident in all aspects of my daily life. I no longer felt uncomfortable when I was involved in some social situations. By seeing and expressing more of the harmony of God and man, I was supplied with whatever I needed to handle any challenge.

Before I started my study of harmony, it seemed to me that I was expressing God's love but not receiving this love from others. As I worked to see and demonstrate more of the true relationship of God and man, this argument was proved false. I found part of a statement in Science and Health particularly helpful: "This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object...." ^{Ibid., p. 304.}

My growth in understanding man as both the manifestation and object of divine Love helped me see that by reflecting Love, man both receives and expresses spiritual love. This love does not originate in man; it originates in God. Therefore man has an unlimited supply of love to express. Not only is it impossible to "run out" of love, it is equally impossible to experience a lack of love, since man is the object of unlimited Love.

Needless to say, I was awed and grateful for the unfoldment of Love's harmony. Human planning and plotting could never have brought about such growth in understanding, because they have no divine Principle. The evidence of the harmony of true being did not stop for me with a better understanding of companionship. The concept of harmony was unfolding more and more of God's infinite goodness.

A phrase within a sentence in Science and Health reads, "no lapse from nor return to harmony." (The full sentence reads, "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 that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history." ^{Ibid., pp. 470–471.} ) I prayed to understand that harmony is constant. God is eternal, unchanging; therefore, man, His reflection, cannot have ups and downs. He expresses God's perfection, which does not vary.

Great peace and joy filled my days, weeks, and months. Then suddenly the harmony seemed to disappear. For a few days I delved into a study of God as Love. I realized that while I had continued to try to express greater harmony, I had lost track of the source of that harmony, namely God, Love. I saw that we cannot hope to experience harmony if we forget why we truly have that harmony.

I turned away from contemplating my human experience so that I could give my full attention to understanding that God, Love, is All-in-all. I knew that I had more to learn about the relationship of God and man. That week the Bible Lesson in the Christian Science Quarterly was on the subject "Love," and it inspired me with many beautiful, comforting passages describing the love of God. Using spiritual sense, I worked to see Love as filling all space, as entirely All. My sense of Love expanded until I could see that the harmony of man's being is derived from the allness of divine Principle, Life, Love. Living is loving; loving is living.

The Bible Lesson also included the familiar citation from the First Epistle of John, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." ^{I John 3:1.} I had heard and read that passage many times before, but it struck me with tremendous, gentle force. The relationship of Love to its child, spiritual man, became much clearer to me, restoring my joy.

Of course man lives in harmony because he abides in infinite Love. Our Father-Mother God knows His child is perfect, and any suggestion that man is less than all-harmonious is only an illusion that would deny the goodness of God. It melts as we see that the tenderness of Love for its innocent child supplies man with peace. As we understand that this truth constitutes reality, we each feel and express more tangibly the ever-presence of Love, and increasingly we demonstrate the harmony that is our true being.