Who of us doesn't yearn for a sure basis on which to relate in fellowship with others? Most of us deal—nearly every moment of our lives—with relationships in our immediate family, and among friends, in-laws, neighbors, business associates, casual acquaintances. Who doesn't realize that we could significantly improve these contacts? There is comfort in these Scriptural promises: "God setteth the solitary in families" (Ps. 68:6) and "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you" (Isa. 66:13). These verses show the nature of God as tender, ever-present Love. The influence of this Love, embraced, will mend broken relationships, alleviate misunderstandings, restrain angry or violent impulses, and restore the sweet sense of belonging. It brings us into a truer sense of family.

Whatever our human circumstances seem to be, we need to examine the thoughts that determine and develop our relationships. We can ask, Where is our thought in relation to divine Love? Are we recognizing, and claiming as our own, our genuine sonship with our Father-Mother God? Love alone provides eternally and equally for its spiritual ideas, or children, and they are dependent on God alone. It is God who is ever near; His boundless love enfolds us, and we can never be separated from Him. It is He who "relates" us. How else would Love relate us but lovingly?

Love's law is the only law governing man. This law maintains justice for all. God's law is operating right where you are. If you, for any reason, feel alone, afraid, or forsaken in this world, if you are alienated from family or friends, there is lasting help in finding out more about your precious and unchanging relationship to God, who is our true Father-Mother. Accept your heritage as a beloved child of God. Our Father never abandons His own. His love is forever.

What is it, then, that seems to interfere with our expressing and experiencing more love? It is a case of false identification, failure to identify oneself and others as Love's spiritual creation, failure to question the reality of the discords of human life as legitimate and necessary. God does not cause evil, nor is evil a cause. A loving cause has a corresponding loving effect. Turning prayerfully to God, good, as the only cause, reconciling our thoughts with God, Love, results in the reconciliation of family issues and relationship problems.

During a period of continual conflict with one of our children, who was in his teens, I called a Christian Science practitioner for prayerful support. He asked me to think of this child as "my brother" instead of "my child." It was difficult for me to grasp this concept or to adhere to it. In fact, I thought, "What has this to do with my problem?" We reasoned together, however, that there is no "out of control" or "beyond control" in Love, and that God, Love, never loses control of His child. We saw that God's child is ever obedient and responds to His control alone. I didn't have to be personally "in control," so to speak. I began humbly to consider this and prayerfully to discipline my thoughts. I realized that in truth the child was, indeed, not my flesh and blood, not "my" child, but was in reality and always would be God's child, His spiritual idea.

The word brother and the change of identification in my consciousness lifted my thought to a purer love and changed my entire perspective. This had a definite effect on the child's attitude as well. Soon the relationship became cooperative and loving once again. I learned that relationships are blessed, not because we are blood related, but because we are Love related!

In the Bible we find these thought-provoking questions: "Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?" (Mal. 2:10). We are all of one family—the family of man. In Science and Health Mary Baker Eddy writes, "Immortals, or God's children in divine Science, are one harmonious family; but mortals, or the 'children of men' in material sense, are discordant and ofttimes false brethren" (p. 444). Material sense, the mortal view of man, is the culprit, and the spiritual sense, the immortal concept, of man is the sure remedy.

Christ Jesus demonstrated his sonship with the Father and showed us how to claim our own dear sonship and true self—and the true selfhood of those with whom we come in contact. To love one another as he loved is the new commandment that our Master gave us. The Gospel of John states, "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (1:12, 13).

Pondering these verses has brought a new birth to me. As a student of the Science of Christ, I now understand that I can reject all thought of being born of blood ancestry, disclaim any origin in Adam and Eve as well as the related false theology. In prayer I refute theories of physiology, which base life in matter rather than on Spirit. I acknowledge and cherish my real being—and that of others—as "born of God." I rejoice that man is therefore wholly spiritual and spiritually whole, including the right sense of family. Science and Health states, "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" (pp. 470–471).

In our present society there are many intermediate steps, and much purifying of thought and motives, required to achieve the pure goal of recognizing the brotherhood of man and the universal family of man. But this family is forever safe and secure in its oneness with its source, God. As we claim our Love-established kinship with our brothers and sisters and make this ideal practical in our lives, a glorious transformation of individual character will take place, and society as a whole will be benefited.