There is something very special about who you really are. It's your true beauty. The form of this beauty is unending and substantial because it is wholly spiritual. Soul, God, originates and sustains beautiful form. Its symmetry, grace, and substance exist perpetually as the full and unique expression of divine Mind.

Some may fear that one loses a measure of his identity if he loses matter. But actually, to identify man as entirely spiritual gives to the individual his full and true glory.

Our purpose is not in striving to lay aside a body of matter. Rather, it is to begin discovering that in reality one's true identity is already spiritual. And spirituality has never been less than lovely.

Spirit, God, is true substance—the only real substance. Matter is insubstantial. It is a changing concept and always a false concept—temporary and subjective. Man and his beauty are real, but this true substance is established in the sacredness of Soul, never in the mutations of matter.

Those who are learning that man is the child of Soul, the very expression of God, have glimpsed something of the fact that being is genuine only as it is found to be entirely spiritual. They have discovered that spiritual identity is not intangible. This true nature, rooted in Spirit, is not a dreamy or theoretical abstraction. Man, as God made him, is individual and distinct. He is unique. He has form and outline, color and character, shape and substance.

What is this holy form? If the substance of one's being is absolutely spiritual, without a trace of matter, what does he look like? He certainly does not look like matter—regardless of the evidence of the material senses. We will see this man of Spirit's making only in the measure we view him through spiritual sense.

In the Christian Science textbook Mrs. Eddy calls attention to different language equivalents for the term "man": "...in the Welsh, that which rises up,—the primary sense being image, form;...in the Icelandic, mind." She follows with the translation of a Bible verse from the Icelandic: "And God said, Let us make man after our mind and our likeness; and God shaped man after His mind; after God's mind shaped He him; and He shaped them male and female." ^{Science and Health, p. 525;}

Man is individually and uniquely fashioned after the likeness— the beauty—of divine consciousness. The form of his true being, spiritual thought, must be measured by spiritually mental attributes, not by inches and pounds. Those with sufficient spiritual-mindedness have seen through the limits of matter—time and space— and caught a glimpse of man's true form. Isaiah recognized the form of man to illustrate the beauty, the glory, of God, his Maker: "I have created him for my glory, I have formed him." ^{Isa. 43:7;}

Christ Jesus, too, recognized the glorious nature of man. He saw beyond mortality to the splendor of reality. Having led three disciples to a mountaintop, he prayed. "And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: who appeared in glory...." The disciples "saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him." ^{Luke 9:29-32;}

While most supposed that Elias and Moses were gone, Christ Jesus recognized that no individual ever loses his majestic, spiritual identity. And this understanding enabled him to rise above mortality and commune with them naturally. Mrs. Eddy tells us, "In Science, form and individuality are never lost, thoughts are outlined, individualized ideas, which dwell forever in the divine Mind as tangible, true substance, because eternally conscious." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 103;}

Each of us can begin to understand and actually recognize something more of man's glorious form. We can discern, for instance, the deep-rooted integrity and righteousness that adorn man. We should begin to see that they shape his very life. We can sharpen our perception of man's clear expression of consistent joy and purity of thought. As we glimpse these qualities and understand that they form his real nature—constitute his true, God-sustained being—we are taking some first modest steps in discerning true identity. We see hints of what constitutes the substantial and enduring nature of man.

As we individually cultivate our ability to perceive this more substantial nature—in fact, the only nature—a full and genuine concept of man becomes more apparent to others, too. Discerning man in his true, substantial being—as the precious idea, the very image of divine Mind—brings healing. Glimpsing the spiritual fact begins at once to dissolve the limitations of mortal belief. It lifts us, step by step, out of the ugliness of mortality.

Each of us can begin today prayerfully discerning the spiritual form of man. We can identify him as shaped after the glory of divine consciousness. We can gratefully acknowledge his goodness, holiness, and purity. Through spiritualized thought we see the loveliness of individual being. Mrs. Eddy observes, "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." ^{Science and Health, p. 247.}

Man is beautiful because he is God's special expression of His glory. We can each begin to discover our holy identity as uniquely and spiritually shaped by Mind.

Nathan A. Talbot