IT WAS ICY cold in the parish church, even though it was the end of June. We were attending a Sunday service with our English friends. Although the melodies of the hymns were familiar, the words required concentration. And I had to scramble to find the responses in the prayer book. But I could settle into my own comfort zone when I heard the Scriptural passages, particularly Paul's words to the Colossians: "...above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness" (3:14).

Then the vicar—tall, ruddy, with a rolling Irish brogue—began his sermon. He used as his text the story of the prodigal son (see Luke 15:11-32). His approach was entirely new, as far as I was concerned. He said: " 'A certain man had two sons....' The definitive word in this parable is two. The one son is silly, greedy, imprudent, a wastrel; the other is self-centered, critical, self-righteous. Two individuals with very different points of view."

He continued: "I have just come back from a visit to my mother in Ireland, and I can tell you this feeling of separation is not confined to Jesus' time. It is widespread. It occurs in our homes, our churches, our community, the world. We are ever at loggerheads, always finding fault, lacking harmony."

Now he warmed to his subject. "But it is our Father's love that can unify and harmonize different elements in our lives. He gives His love to both sons. And to the one filled with self-pity, He is especially tender. He says: 'Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.' "

I was thrilled with his remarks. I yearned to share with him and the congregation what Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health: "With one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual powerwhich constitute divine Science" (pp. 469-470).

With what clarity this truth penetrates the problem and supplies the answer to all conditions of inharmony: we need to have only one God, one Father. During the rest of that service, I pondered what it is that separates us and causes dissension.

Fear of change? To venture into the unfamiliar may be threatening to those who are most comfortable with the status quo.

I thought about the importance of listening for the familiar and for the new. I felt gratitude for every evidence of God's love and for an understanding of that love. I appreciated anew the reality of God as the one Mind, which not only unifies but also eliminates any suggestion of many different minds, warring with each other and refusing harmony.

Is it fear of lack that causes hatred and separation? If we are concerned that others are receiving things that we aren't, we can be troubled. But the good news is that God already provides us with all good. We don't have to compete for His love or blessing. There's plenty for all. The parable promises, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." Our true identity as God's spiritual offspring is already established.

In the book of Genesis we read that God made man in His likeness, indispensable as His reflection. And as reflection, man has everything that God has. Since reflection implies immediate expression, man has health, abundance, joy, dominion. In her book Unity of Good, Mrs. Eddy writes: "There are not two realities of being, two opposite states of existence. One should appear real to us, and the other unreal, or we lose the Science of being" (p. 49). There are not two realities: sinning, diseased man and spiritual man; there is but one creation: perfect God, Spirit, and spiritual, perfect man. This is the true identity of each of us.

If we consent to the belief that we lack something someone else has or that someone has deprived us of something we deserve, we make ourselves vulnerable to all kinds of inharmony. Instead, we should bring the divine Principle, Love, to every situation—whether it is a family disagreement or a stalemate between two sides in a business or community dispute or on a global scale.

To each of these scenarios we can bring the understanding that God is our true Parent. All the world is included in God's family; each one is needed to fill his or her proper place. Each one has access to all good.

Shortly after we came home from our visit to England, I had an opportunity to put this new view of the parable of the prodigal son into use. A situation in our country required prayer—the acknowledgment of God's love for everyone. A strike involving a large company and its union workers seemed at an impasse. There appeared to be irreconcilable demands for benefits on one side, demands for cutting costs on the other.

Like many other people, I started to pray. I tried to approach the situation without condemnation or criticism. I felt compassionate love for all of God's ideas. I understood each individual to be God's idea, honest and industrious; God's creation cannot be tempted to be devious or selfish.

Everything I read in the weekly Bible Lesson in the Christian Science Quarterly and in the Christian Science periodicals that week pointed to oneness, not divisiveness. With this abundance of spiritual ideas, I could see that feeling God's love as the one reality could be applied to other problems: beneath-the-surface resentment in a marriage, indignation at racial injustice, the belief of warring cells in the physical body. One infinite God is the unifying power, is the only power.

I don't feel that I settled the strike—some people felt it wasn't resolved satisfactorily—but in my prayers I used what I was discovering about the oneness of God, and that helped me.

Change must come in our own thought first. We all have said, "If only he would change." Or "It's her fault." But the operating reality of our world is our thinking. So it should be good. It should be so filled with Godlike qualities that no hint of separation from God in our consciousness can possibly occur.

Whether it is a belief of a tormented body, a family squabble, or a war halfway across the world, we can view the situation from a higher altitude. How does God see us, see our friends, or see the world situation? With justice, mercy, lovingkindness, health, holiness, abundance. These are the gifts our heavenly Father gives to each of His children in need, so not one of us is lacking or hurt or angry.

"Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine" is God's message to all His children.