3 Nephi 19:23 -- On Becoming One

"And now Father, I pray unto thee for them, and also for all those who shall believe on their words, that they may believe in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me, that we may be one."
3 Nephi 19:23


This is part of the prayer that Christ directs to his Father in Heaven. I like the idea of oneness here... that we can have Christ with us as Christ did his Father... the Spirit of God helping us and lifting us up, a constant stream of communication and shared purpose. I think we pull away from the spirit sometimes because we think that God is something external and foreign to us, and that doing his will rather than our own makes us less ourselves in some way, but that isn't the case.

We forget sometimes that God is where we came from, and that our Spirits are part of him, perhaps in a similar way to our bodies being genetically part of our earthly parents... we came from them, and they are a part of us, always. Spiritually we are a part of God, always. Having a fuller consciousness of the Spirit and communing with God doesn't make us more or less a part of Him, but it helps us reconnect with our family, and our friend, and our mentor, and our coach, and everything else that God is to us in all of its divine glory. Doing so brings a oneness that isn't a loss of self, but rather like having a close friend in conversational distance all the time. He knows us, we can bouce ideas off him, and he can help us learn and be a better version of ourselves, not an animatronic simalcrum similar to the Stepford Wives dystopia, but fully ourselves, only influenced by our choices to listen or not, to take advice or not, just like a friend.

If God wanted slaves, he could easily get them... but instead, we are his beloved children, and he wants to be with us to constantly help us. Today, let's unite with Christ's desires in this prayer. Let's believe in, and welcome Christ. Let's make him more a part of our lives, that we may be one with him and learn and become everything that we can be, together.