“Harmony is the law of God”

Understanding better what I was not applying to my healing work was tested very quickly in two family situations over the holidays. In both of these, I am the only family member active in Science. In the first situation, my wife and I were headed to California to spend Christmas with our oldest son and his new fiancé. He has been a single dad for over 18 years, and she a single mom for a similar period. We were so delighted to see this new family coming together – it could not have been a more delightful way to share the holiday. So you can imagine our shock when we arrived to find out that for reasons unknown, the engagement was now off, our son was having to look for a new home (they had just jointly purchased a beautiful home for this new family) and that they were not even speaking. I realized all I could do was just to listen for how God was seeing this situation, and not get caught up in the emotions that seemed to be swirling about. As there wasn’t a place for me to retreat to for prayer, I took what I had learned from this assignment and knew that harmony is the law of God, while discord of any sort was just false human belief. I also did not outline what was right, but just listened to hear what God was revealing to all of us – each in a way we could hear and respond. Within a day the “ice thawed”, and by the end of the holiday period this new family stood taller and stronger, and we all had enjoyed a harmonious holiday together in their new home. And it continues to this day.

The second challenge occurred during all of this. The day after Christmas I received a call from our younger son’s father-in-law outlining how our son had spent the holiday in an inebriated condition, and how he was now “stepping in” to tell his daughter how to handle this situation and get our son enrolled in some form of remedial care. The call was not as informative as it was directive – an “in your face call” telling us what the truth of the situation was and what was going to have to happen. While my only response was to thank him for making the call to me, it took me most of the day to gain control of my thought and to realize the first challenge was to handle a false sense of personality – to see all involved as God’s children, and to see that there was always and only one agenda – God’s. Quite honestly, I had to recognize my very poor reaction to this call was just as incorrect as what the call itself suggested. As the call came during the day we were celebrating Christmas with our new family above, I did not get a chance to share this call with my wife until later that evening. By that time it did not seem wise to make any calls into our younger son’s family, nor to respond further to his father-in-law. I must say I have never worked so hard and continuously on an issue—again, not to define what was the right outcome, but just to know that one Mind was governing all, and that the Christ is ever-present in each of us, in ways that each would perfectly hear and respond to. The next morning my wife shared an email she had been led to send to the other father and mother-in-law, outlining how important it was for all of us to surround this young couple in love, and to help them feel supported to take whatever steps they felt were right. I could never have said anything as perfectly or as beautifully as she did, and no more was ever said. I worked for several more days, including help from a practitioner, until I felt all was at peace. And it was. We were with this family several weeks later to celebrate the first birthday of their second daughter, and several changes were quite evident. First, they are part of a very large, active (competitive?) family that celebrates hard. Yet this time – for the first time – there was no alcohol anywhere in the house during our time there, and certainly not during the large party. Secondly, the level of family bickering that had seemed very common had dramatically declined, with a much greater sense of harmony in the home. And thirdly, our normal dinner with the other parents was very harmonious, with not a comment made nor an opinion offered.

While I would not recommend this as a way to spend the holidays, I am so grateful for a growing, practical sense of the Christ, how it is present in everyone and always speaking to everyone in ways they can hear and understand. As noted earlier, I am more confident now to apply and trust what I know – to not shy away from handling any claim, but to listen and know God will provide “the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil.” (SH p. 571:16-18)