Start with yourself and work outward. Change what you can change, not what you can’t. If I am unable to create and experience unity on a personal level, how can I expect to influence unity on a large scale? There are four relationships which require connection, empathy and love before we can extend ourselves to our neighbors and brothers. Oneness with God, self, spouse and household are foundational for developing unity with others outside our homes. As part of a series we will focus on unity with God.

Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” and “ the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Do you sense the intimacy? God’s theme of oneness calls out to us. We are in “his image”. Even before we are Christians, there is a part of us which beckons back to the creation, a reminder of our “daddy”. The oneness goes beyond passively sharing in his image; there is also the manner in which God infused life into man. Lightning and electrodes were the violent vehicle for Frankenstein to come to life. When someone’s heart stops, cold charged metal paddles shoot volts through the body to revive it. Not so our God! He instills life with intimate contact. It is a kiss. The act is not detached or violent; it is gentle, warm, thoughtful and full of contact.

The aforementioned intimacy is not relegated to the Old Testament. Jesus’ hope for meaningful intimacy among his believers is found in John 17:21a, “…that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” The prayer of Jesus is not that his followers would have “a personal relationship with God”, but oneness with God at the same level and depth as Jesus himself.