The other day, while planning an upcoming special lunch, I was reading various biscuit recipes. I noticed that a number of them mentioned the importance of making sure that the biscuits touch each other when arranged on the pan – the reason being that they rise better when they are connected.
Well, that was a useful baking tip. But what was more interesting to me was the thought that this concept of rising together applies not just to biscuits, but to people – whether friends, families, communities, or even nations. When we are willing to be unified in a spirit of love, then we can naturally rise together for the greater good.
We are able to do this because, in reality, we aren’t mortals at odds but spiritual ideas, made in the image and likeness of God. Through our divine relationship with Him, each of us naturally and precisely reflects the wonderful qualities and attributes of our heavenly Father-Mother, such as lovingkindness, gentleness, patience, compassion, and understanding. And we are inherently unified with each other, as brothers and sisters in God.
Through prayer, each of us can strive to keep our own thought consistent with these spiritual truths, joyously expressing brotherly love, mutual respect, sincere appreciation, and so on. Qualities of divine Love, God, are exactly what Christ Jesus taught his followers to express. And it’s still doable today. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, encouraged, “In love for man we gain the only and true sense of love for God, practical good, and so rise and still rise to His image and likeness, and are made partakers of that Mind whence springs the universe” (“The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” p. 287).
All this brings to mind a situation years ago when my boss asked me to head up a group project. For a while, our team was able to share our individual perspectives harmoniously and work together efficiently. It was all pretty easy-breezy – until it wasn’t.
After months of progress, things started to take a turn. During a routine team meeting, contrariness, defiance, and disrespect began to take over. There was a domino effect around the table, and the biscuits, so to speak, were no longer connected and rising together. It was quite the opposite.
We managed to regain order and accomplish what needed to be addressed at the meeting, but I went back to my office disappointed and frustrated. I wanted this inharmony to be healed so the disruption wouldn’t repeat itself. As a Christian Scientist, I was used to praying and knew that every type of problem could be resolved by turning to God, divine Love, so that’s what I did.
I started my prayers by acknowledging each member of this committee, including myself, as the good and pure child of God. Next, I began valuing the fine spiritual qualities each one had been bringing to this work. Everyone’s inherent goodness comes from God, the one divine Mind, so it can never be twisted or interrupted.
I realized that this sudden negativity was simply the suggestion that there could be another power, a carnal mind, apart from God. In reality there is no power besides God, infinite Mind. I thought of this statement in the Bible: “Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38, 39).
There was my answer: Nothing can tear apart the unity of God and man, so nothing can enter in to divide God’s children, His spiritual image and likeness. I held to that.
Peace among the team was soon restored, and we finished our task with excellent results.
Through our heavenly Father’s grace, we’re all equipped to rise together in ways that bless. No matter what the need may be, as God’s beloved offspring, we can collaborate in harmony to achieve progress and solutions.
