I WAS A FIRST-YEAR COLLEGE STUDENT on a bus traveling from western Massachusetts to Boston, reading a collection of writings by civil rights leader Martin Luther King. As I turned the pages, I slid one of my fingers along an edge and got a paper cut. Many people might say this is one of those small, everyday kind of occurrences we all have to endure, and I probably would have agreed prior to that day on the bus. But something happened on that trip that made me think differently.
At the time I was deep in thought—praying really—inspired by King's statement, "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny" (I Have a Dream, Harper Collins, p. 85). I was pondering his words in light of what Christian Science teaches about God being the one source from which we emanate. Then, right as this paper cut tried to disrupt my peace, I caught a spontaneous glimpse of the wholeness, indivisibility, and oneness of God's creation. The next instant, I looked at my hand and couldn't find any evidence of a cut. What had happened?
A verse in Ephesians has helped me understand what I experienced on the bus that day. It calls upon followers "to keep the unity of the Spirit" (Eph. 4:3). I looked up the word unity and found it means something that's a cohesive, systematic, and continuous whole without separation, division, or interruption. That got me thinking. Is this verse articulating a fundamental law of unity that underlies existence? And is this what King was echoing in his statement about "an inescapable network of mutuality"?
