The gift of beauty

A friend of mine badly wanted to look more attractive. One day we visited a neighbor who had passed her 90th birthday. She was frail and wrinkled, but her brown eyes expressed such radiance and affection that my friend remarked, "If only I could have that much beauty!"

All of us can express just that kind of radiance. Beauty is one of God's great gifts to His children. It is fundamental to our true, spiritual selfhood as God's reflection. Mary Baker Eddy n1 writes, "Beauty is a thing of life, which dwells forever in the eternal Mind and reflects the charms of His goodness in expression, form, outline, and color." n2

n1 Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science

n2 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m p. 247

Express real radiance, we must look beyond the illusive material senses, which would have us believe that changing standards of so-called physical beauty and glamour are what we want or need.

As we begin to understand our real nature and identity as an idea of God, not a mortal man or woman, we'll find we're reflecting a beauty so pure and perfect that it defies imitation because it comes from God. The Bible instructs us: "Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty." n3

n3 Job 40:10

We include, in our makeup as His offspring, allm that is truly beautiful.

And it is something that we'll never have to change.

As we think about God's infinite love, we begin to perceive that each of us in his true identity reflects the beauty that is from Soul, God -- regardless of physical appearance.

Because beauty is an attribute of God, which we express in our real being, we'll discover that by claiming it as God's gift to us, and exercising it, beauty will enhance every aspect of our lives.

We may find ourselves choosing colors and patterns that complement our apparel. We may surround ourselves with things that express beauty. Certainly we'll be more helpful and kind to neighbors and strangers.

Mrs. Eddy calls attention to the spiritual sense of beauty when she writes: "Love never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon its object. One marvels that a friend can ever seem less than beautiful." n4

n4 Science and Health,m p. 248.

Love makes our friends and relatives beautiful to us. Not because of personality traits, physique, or so-called blood ties but because of the pure qualities actually expressed.

Love can bring out the goodness and beauty of everything we do, from filing papers to painting a picture. What makes things dull and ugly? Sometimes it's a lack of gratitude. Gratitude always brings out goodness and beauty.

Christ Jesus' life was the most beautiful that ever touched this planet. He made the deformed whole. He made the blind see. Sinners were purified by this penetrating spiritual concept of their true being.

To all those he touched, he gave such a resounding proof of the living Christ that the world has never been the same.

We too can express, in the degree that we understand our real selfhood, the beauty this great Teacher witnessed for us -- the perfection that never ages, fades, or is flawed. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Behold, O god our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed. For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Psalms 84:9, 10