God established His relationship with you to make you happy, and nothing
you do which does not share His purpose can be real. The purpose God
ascribed to anything is its only function. Because of His reason for
creating His relationship with you, the function of relationships became
forever “to make happy.” AND NOTHING ELSE. To fulfill this function, you
relate to your creations as God to His. For nothing God created is apart
from happiness, and nothing God created but would EXTEND happiness as
its Creator did. Whatever fulfills this function not CANNOT be real.

In this world, it is impossible to create. Yet it IS possible to make
happy. We have said, repeatedly, that the Holy Spirit would not DEPRIVE
you of your special relationships, but would TRANSFORM
them. And by that all that is meant is that He will restore to them the
function given them by God. The function you have given them is clearly
NOT to make happy. But the holy relationship shares God’s purpose,
rather than aiming to make a substitute for it. Every special
relationship which YOU have made is a substitute for God’s Will, and
glorifies yours instead of His because of the delusion that they are
DIFFERENT.

You have made very real relationships even in this world which you do
not recognize, simply because you have raised their substitutes to such
predominance that, when truth calls to you, as it does constantly, you
answer with a substitute. Every special relationship which you have ever
undertaken has, as its fundamental purpose, the aim of occupying your
minds so completely that you will not HEAR the call of truth. In a
sense, the special relationship was the ego’s answer to the creation of
the Holy Spirit, Who was God’s answer to the separation. For although
the ego did not understand what had been created, it WAS aware of
threat.

The whole defense system which the ego evolved to protect the separation
from the Holy Spirit was in response to the gift with which God blessed
it, and by His blessing enabled it to be healed. This blessing holds,
within ITSELF, the truth about everything. And the truth is that the
Holy Spirit is in close relationship with you because, in Him, is your
relationship with God restored to you. The relationship with Him has
NEVER been broken, because the Holy Spirit has not been separate from
anyone since the separation. And through Him have all your holy
relationships been carefully preserved, to serve God’s purpose for you.

The ego is hyperalert to threat, and the part of your mind into which
the ego was accepted is very anxious to preserve its reason, as it sees
it. It does not realize that it is totally insane. And you must realize
just what this means, if YOU would be restored to sanity. The insane
protect their thought systems, but they do so INSANELY. And ALL their
defenses are as insane as what they are supposed to protect. The
separation has NOTHING in it, no part, no “reason,” and no attribute
that is NOT insane. And its “protection” is part of it, as insane as the
whole. The special relationship, which is its chief defense, MUST
therefore be insane.

You have but little difficulty now in realizing that the thought system
which the special relationship protects is but a system of delusions. You
recognize, at least in general terms, that the ego is insane. Yet the
special relationship still seems to you somehow to be “different.” Yet
we have looked at it far closer than at many other aspects of the ego’s
thought system which you have been more willing to let go. While this
one remains, you will NOT let the others go. For this one is NOT
different. Retain this one, and you HAVE retained the whole.

It is essential to realize that all defenses DO what they would DEFEND.
The underlying basis for their effectiveness is that they OFFER what
they defend. What they defend is placed IN them for safe-keeping, and as
they operate, they BRING it to you. Every defense operates by giving
gifts, and the gift is ALWAYS a miniature of the thought system the
defense protects, set in a golden frame. The frame is very elaborate,
all set with jewels, and deeply carved and polished. Its purpose is to
be of value IN ITSELF, and to divert your attention from what it
encloses. But the frame WITHOUT the picture, you cannot have. Defenses
operate to make you think you CAN.

The special relationship has the most imposing and deceptive frame of
all the defenses the ego uses. Its thought system is offered here,
surrounded by a frame so heavy and so elaborate that the picture is
almost obliterated by its imposing structure. Into the frame are woven
all sorts of fanciful and fragmented illusions of love, set with dreams
of sacrifice and self-aggrandizement, and interlaced with gilded threads
of self-destruction. The glitter of blood shines like rubies, and the
tears are faceted like diamonds and gleam in the dim light in which the
offering is made.

Look at the PICTURE. Do not let the frame distract you. This gift is
given you for your damnation, and if you take it you will believe that
you ARE damned. You CANNOT have the frame without the picture. What you
value is the FRAME, for there you see no conflict. Yet the frame is only
the wrapping for the gift of conflict. The frame is NOT the gift. Be not
deceived by the most superficial aspects of this thought system, for
these aspects enclose the whole, complete in EVERY aspect. Death lies in
this glittering gift. Let not your gaze dwell on the hypnotic gleaming
of the frame. Look at the PICTURE, and realize that DEATH is offered
you.

That is why the holy instant is so important in the defense of truth.
The truth itself NEEDS no defense, but you DO need defense against your
own acceptance of the gift of death. When you who are truth accept an
idea so dangerous TO truth, you threaten truth with destruction. And
your defense must now be undertaken, to keep truth WHOLE. The power of
Heaven, the Love of God, the tears of Christ and the joy of His eternal
Spirit are marshalled to defend you from your own attack. For you attack
Them, being PART of Them, and They must save you, for They love
Themselves.

The holy instant is a miniature of Heaven, sent you FROM Heaven. It is a
picture, too, set in a frame. Yet if you accept THIS gift, you will not
see the frame at all, because the gift can only be accepted through your
willingness to focus ALL your attention on the PICTURE. The holy instant
is a miniature of eternity. It is a picture of timelessness, set in a
frame of time. If you focus on the picture, you will realize that it was
only the frame that made you think it WAS a picture. Without the frame,
the picture is seen as what it REPRESENTS. For as the whole thought
system of the ego lies in its gifts, so the whole of Heaven lies in this
instant, borrowed from eternity, and set in time for you.

Two gifts are offered you. Each is complete, and cannot be partially
accepted. Each is a picture of all that you can have, seen VERY
differently. You cannot compare their value by comparing a picture to a
frame. It must be the pictures only that you compare, or the comparison
is wholly without meaning. Remember that it is the picture that is the
gift. And only on this basis are you REALLY free to choose. Look at the
pictures. BOTH of them. One is a tiny picture, hard to see at all
beneath the heavy shadows of its enormous and disproportionate
enclosure. The other is lightly framed and hung in light, lovely to look
upon for what it IS.

You who have tried so hard, and are STILL trying, to fit the better
picture into the wrong frame and so combine what cannot BE combined,
accept this and be glad: These pictures are each framed perfectly for
what they represent. One is framed to be out of focus, and not seen. The
other is framed for perfect clarity. The picture of darkness and of
death grows less convincing as you search it out amid its wrappings. As
each senseless stone which seems to shine in
darkness from the frame is exposed to light, it becomes dull and
lifeless, and ceases to distract you from the picture. And finally, you
look upon the picture itself, seeing at last that, unprotected by the
frame, it HAS no meaning.

The other picture is lightly framed, for time cannot contain eternity.
There IS no distraction here. The picture of Heaven and eternity grows
MORE convincing as you look at it. And now, by REAL comparison, a
transformation of both pictures can at last occur. And each is given its
rightful place, when both are seen in relation to each other. The dark
picture, brought to light, is not perceived as fearful, but the fact
that it is just a PICTURE is brought home at last. And what you see
there you will recognize as what it is; a picture of what you THOUGHT
was real, and nothing more. For beyond this picture, you will see
nothing.

The picture of light, in clearcut and unmistakable contrast, is
transformed INTO what lies beyond the picture. As you look on this, you
realize that it is NOT a picture, but a REALITY. This is no figured
representation of a thought system, but the Thought Itself. What it
represents is THERE. The frame fades gently, and God rises to your
remembrance, offering you the whole of creation in exchange for your
little picture, wholly without value and entirely deprived of meaning.

As God ascends into His rightful place and you to yours, you will
experience again the MEANING of relationship, and know it to be true.
Let us ascend in peace together to the Father, by giving HIM ascendance
in our minds. We will gain EVERYTHING by giving Him the power and the
glory, and keeping no illusions of where they are. They are in US,
through HIS ascendance. What He has given is HIS. It shines in every
part of Him, as in the whole. The whole reality of your relationship with
Him lies in OUR relationship to one another. The holy instant shines
alike on all relationships, for in it they ARE one. For here is only
healing, ALREADY complete and perfect. For here is God, and where He is
only the perfect and complete CAN be.