Article July 16, 1990 Issue

"I am not alone, because the Father is with me"

The most meaningful aspect of our relationships isn't the fact that we have them but the substance of love we bring to them.

Helen Enright

Have you ever been in a room full of people yet felt isolated? For, many years I lived a busy life and was engaged in many community activities, and yet I felt lonely. As a Christian Scientist I earnestly sought to learn what I had to understand in order to bring that seemingly "missing ingredient" into my life.

I pored over the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, and I began to see that what I had been seeking was merely human gratification and satisfaction. It became clear I was looking In the wrong direction. I realized that true companionship does not come from being with other people but results from a knowledge of man's relationship to God. God is divine Love, and man is the expression of God. Hence, a deeper understanding of one's identity as the expression of divine Love must result in an increased ability to love and be loved. I came to see that only by establishing relationships on a spiritual basis could I fulfill my desire for right association.

One day I read in John's Gospel of the time when Christ Jesus, anticipating his crucifixion, told, his disciples, "Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." I marveled that Jesus did not feel alone at the time of his crucifixion, when even his closest friends were deserting him. He relied on his Father's ever-presence. He knew that no matter where he was, no matter what his human circumstance appeared to be, he could not be alone, that the creation could never be separated from the creator. Jesus' knowledge of his oneness with the Father gave him strength and peace, not frustration, fear, and loneliness.

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