Article September 15, 2008 Issue

'MORE AT HOME WITH GOD'

BY ALEXANDRA MORRIS

LAST YEAR I moved house when the real estate market in Britain started to fluctuate. I'd wanted a smaller home, closer to work and to my church. The desire wasn't just about sizing down, but especially about gaining a more magnificent and spiritual sense of home itself.

Science and Health teaches that we can resolve "things into thoughts" and replace "the objects of material sense with spiritual ideas" (p. 123). I began cherishing the spiritual qualities of home and endeavoring to see them as a present blessing from God. Thinking about these qualities, I drew up a list of what I wanted in my home, such as freedom, peace, contentment, comfort, joy. These were mental, not physical, attributes. I accepted the fact that it's everyone's right to experience these qualities of home. Then in prayer I set about claiming each as already mine. I saw that I could express them by being content in my current house, at work, driving, shopping — everywhere.

It was becoming clearer that a consciousness filled with love and contentment truly defines what home is. And this concept of home necessarily includes the surrounding "neighborhood"; all of God's creation is naturally housed in divine qualities.