People gather together at church services to worship God. But to worship God you don't need to be in the company of others. You can worship God anywhere, anytime, all by yourself. And, in fact, Christ Jesus said, "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him" (John 4:23). So, why gather at a church service to worship together?

Could it be that the Father is calling on us collectively, as well as individually, to "worship [Him] in spirit and in truth"? A recent experience offered a helpful perspective.

My husband and I had the privilege of spending quite a bit of time over a two-week period with our granddaughter, Sadie. (We enjoyed being with her parents, too!) Whenever this little girl sees us, her face lights up with delight, as if we were the most exciting thing in her life. And she's always ready with open arms to hug us and tell us that she loves us. It isn't just that we are her grandparents. She's just naturally animated with a spirit of openhearted love that draws out the joy in everyone. If the family takes her to a restaurant, for example, customers from other tables not only smile and wave at her, they make special effort to come over to talk with her when they get up to leave.

In asking myself what it is that people are so spontaneously attracted to in this little girl, I concluded that it must be the spirit of universal, divine Love, reflected in her nature. Divine Love, you might say, is everyone's natural habitat; it's where we find our true selves, and our inherent connection with one another. We intuitively recognize its expression and feel ourselves blessed by it. This infinite Love is, of course, God. So, in a very real sense, those who respond to Love's expression are spontaneously gathering together in the worship of God "in spirit and in truth."

I thought a lot about this in the days following that time with our granddaughter. But it was while we were attending the Thanksgiving service at a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, later in the week that the significance of what I had been pondering became clearer.

Prayers in Christian Science churches are to be offered for the congregation, rather than for individuals. So, when I found myself sitting in church with my thoughts welling up with gratitude to God for this little girl, I immediately began to thank Him for all of His children, and specifically for this particular congregation. In a Christian Science church service, the message being heard from the pastor—the Bible, and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy—amplifies the fact that God is Spirit, and that man is Spirit's reflection. And as we participated together in this congregational worship—listening to and cherishing the Word of God, singing hymns of praise, praying silently, and sharing testimonies of gratitude—I was filled with a vital awareness of the oneness of God's universal family.

In that atmosphere of shared worship, it became crystal clear that to "worship the Father in spirit and in truth" does not mean that we each have a separate spirit in which we worship God. We are not divided up into spirits, some of us endowed with more love in our natures than others. Rather, the one Spirit, being infinite, gives us each our real identity. "Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love," Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 477). This reflection of Spirit is what I had seen in our granddaughter. And the spiritual vitality I felt while worshiping in that church came from the active expression of the one Spirit in the thought of those present.

Before the service, I had been aware of a congregation made up of human personalities—mostly people of advancing years, with just a few young people and children. But during the service I felt so keenly the vigorous spiritual devotion and love expressed by all our lives and prayers that concerns about human personality disappeared. This was a dynamic congregation of spiritually active individuals.

I know that others also felt the power of Love expressed in that service. One little boy, for example, got up during the testimony period specifically to say how grateful he was for the members of this church, and for the love they express.

We worship God individually by bringing our thoughts and lives into accord with Him, expressing our inherent spirituality—our true nature as the reflection of Spirit, divine Love. This is worshiping God "in spirit and in truth." Through this spiritual devotion we experience the healing and transforming power of divine Love. We are working out individual salvation from discord and disease. Yet we discover that our spiritual progress is not fully realized if we live only for ourselves, in isolation from others. What we're coming to see of our own nature and relation to God has to be seen as true of all—and expressed in our love for others. In reality, we all dwell together within, and reflect, the same Spirit.

Congregational worship is a very special way of becoming more keenly aware of the universal brotherhood of man. It can set us to work more diligently to include all mankind in our demonstration of the healing, redeeming power of Love. As Science and Health states, "The one Spirit includes all identities" (p. 333). The Father calls us together to witness this individually and to prove it—in church, and in the world. And in doing so we find that a gathering of those who are worshiping the Father "in spirit and in truth" is alive with the transforming power of the one Spirit.

It's true that we don't have to be in the company of others to worship God. But neither can we fully worship Him without coming to the realization—and demonstration—of the universal brotherhood of man in Spirit. Congregational worship strengthens us in this essential endeavor. That's one good reason to go to church. Thank you, Sadie.

Barbara M. Vining