Did you ever feel like you were far away from God? Like you couldn't find Him or couldn't get close to Him? Well, Christ Jesus told us just how close God is. He told us that the kingdom of God is at hand.

Now, how far away is your hand? Not very far, is it! God is even closer, because He is Spirit, and Spirit is everywhere right now. Paul, a follower of Jesus, said, "In him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

Paul's words remind me of a story I once heard about a little fish in the ocean that was talking to another little fish. The first little fish said, "Well, I can see the sand and the shells. I can see the seaweed and many other little fish, but where is this ocean they're always talking about?" That little fish didn't realize he didn't need to go searching to find the ocean, because he was in it! It was all around him. That's how close we are to God, and that's why we don't have to search far to find Him. Because He is Spirit and man is His likeness, we actually live in Him. He's all around us at every moment. In fact, He is All.

If we're in God's presence, then, we can't be in a problem, too. God is all good. He is pure, infinite Love, with no limits, no boundaries, no problems. In God, good, there could be no fear, sadness, loneliness, sickness, or badness. And we always have lived and always will live in Him.

How can we remember this when it seems like we're mostly stuck in a problem—when a bully at school has made us feel afraid, when some sickness seems to be making us feel bad, or when a tempting thought is tugging at us to act unwisely or unlovingly?

Sometimes my hand is a reminder to me of what's really going on. I open my hand and think of the big palm part as standing for God. I see that my fingers are connected right to that palm, and I think of how everything and everyone actually comes from God, Spirit. I remember that God's children reflect Him. They express goodness, joy, love, health, purity—every quality of God.

In this way, my hand is a reminder of just how close God is, and this helps me when I find some not-so-good views of myself or others. I go back to God and check to see if those views of man as sick, sad, or bad really could start from or be connected with God, who is supremely good. If not, then they couldn't possibly be true of man. It would be about as easy for the sun to shine out rays of darkness!

Christ Jesus said, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30), and "I can of mine own self do nothing" (John 5:30). And in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy tells us, "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" (p. 361).

The fact is we can't do one thing on our own, separate from God. We can't think one true thought, sing one note, dance one step, say one word, be or do anything without God! And since we can never be separated from Him, we can never be separated from right thoughts to think, good words to say, loving things to do.

Our oneness, or unity, with God never changes. It's fact forever. Anything that tries to tell us we're on our own, separate from God, is a lie, and it can be rejected. If wrong thoughts suggest we've forgotten our oneness with God, we can deny them and remember our unbreakable link with Him.

One time my daughter had a beautiful healing by learning more about God and man's relationship to Him. She was on the school basketball team. One Thursday before a game, some girls from the other team started saying some unkind things. My daughter's team really wanted to beat that team. There was one girl in particular who made my daughter and her teammates very angry.

Then during the game while running up the court, my daughter fell hard and twisted her ankle. She had to sit out the rest of the game, and the ankle was swollen and sore. She had practice the next day and a very important game the following Monday. The coach called my daughter, concerned about the ankle and wondering if she'd be able to play in the big game.

After my daughter hung up the telephone, we talked about God and His allness, His presence, power, and goodness—right then and there. She decided to call a Christian Science practitioner to pray with her. That's when we learned about "fingers." The practitioner told her to recognize herself as the very emanation of God, like a finger on a hand. She couldn't act apart from or be separate from God. She began to see more clearly that everyone on both teams was actually God's spiritual likeness, expressing His perfect action. After all, two fingers on the same hand wouldn't be in an angry fight or competing with each other.

This gave us a whole new way of seeing ourselves and others. By Sunday my daughter was walking normally, and Monday night she played the whole game with no bench time. She had learned a lot about herself and other players, which she remembered in her games from then on.

God is at hand. He expresses Himself in man every moment. We can't be separated from Him for one instant! As we remember this, we are free to be His perfect expression, to be who we really are, and also to appreciate everyone else as His perfect reflection.