The power of one

As I entered the subway station, I noticed a man begging for money. About 15 minutes before, it had occurred to me to use my walk time to pray instead of just mulling over my workday. Right away I had recalled this from the Bible: “God created man in his own image” (Genesis 1:27). So I’d been pondering this idea as I walked, thinking deeply about this spiritual pronouncement of the divine nature of each individual (man). The holiness of everyone grew palpable to me in an undeniable way—and I rejoiced in it. 

When I reached the bottom of the station stairs, I heard someone calling out, and when I looked up, there was the man I’d seen, coming toward me and loudly apologizing because he had spoken “terrible words” to me. Though I had not heard those words, I accepted his apology, and we talked for a time, including about God, before we said goodbye.

On the rest of my commute home, I thought about what had happened. Why had I not heard those words? And why had the man made such a point of apologizing? It occurred to me that the spirit of divine Truth and Love that had been filling my thought at that moment didn’t leave room for anything else, the way the presence of light makes darkness impossible. And it had eliminated both an offense and an offender. In a moment, this man and I had experienced our brother-and-sisterhood as fact—God as our source and each of us as God’s likeness—and were changed.