Once while a number of us were visiting a friend, we all admired a beautiful arrangement of flowers on the dining table. When the time came for us to leave, our host said, "Now, I want each of you to take that bouquet home with you and keep it." Since it was obvious that to divide the flowers among us would destroy the artistic arrangement, we were puzzled. One of my friends immediately pulled out his camera, photographed the arrangement, and promised us all a print. Our host seemed to mean something deeper than this easy photographic solution.

So I took the bouquet home in thought and pondered it. The arrangement of tawny roses and delicate greenery evidenced a hand and eye that appreciated each blossom and leaf and at the same time loved the blended effect of the bouquet as a whole. But, to me, the invitation to take the gift home and keep it had to be an invitation to see beyond the mortal beauty to the spiritual symmetry and grace it represented, and to give this perception a permanent home in consciousness. We weren't to intellectualize the arrangement into abstract qualities, useful though the abstractions might be. We were to recognize the hieroglyphs of God. Mrs. Eddy writes in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, "The floral apostles are hieroglyphs of Deity."^{Science and Health, p. 240.}

As I pondered, I began to realize the beauty of Principle, God: every spiritual thought, or object, in an exact right relationship with every other. I saw that each individual is perfectly arrayed and at the same time contributes to the perfect harmony and symmetry of the whole of God's creation. Mind beautifully perceives, understands, and appreciates each of its individual ideas while comprehending and shaping the grandeur of the universe. Love cherishes and protects. Truth and Spirit give substance and energy. Life vitalizes, and Soul individualizes. And individual man, as God's likeness, not only fills his special place in the divine bouquet but also reflects God's comprehension and appreciation of His beautiful creation and His joy in it.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork," ^{Ps. 19:1.} we read in Psalms. Previously, looking at the world mainly with the material senses, I had perceived even the most beautiful scenes and objects as vulnerable, tinged with imperfection, weathered by time. But as I began to see through material beauty to the infinite harmony of God's creation, I received intuitions of spiritual beauty.

One day, as I was driving alone, thinking how the bouquet symbolizes the perfect unity of the divine whole with its individual manifestations, I came to the brink of a hill and felt the entire landscape suffused with spiritual harmony, peace, and joy. For a time I parked the car off the road in order to savor the divine glory I saw radiating through the human scene.

At another time, while listening to a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, I heard beyond the music the spiritual joy and ecstasy that must have inspired it. Each note and phrase was beautiful, but all cooperated in the harmonious chords and soaring melodies that made the symphony, to me, a revelation of God's glory.

Still later, while I was serving as First Reader in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, I glimpsed the beauty of man. It was a Wednesday night, and even though the readings had been carefully prepared and lovingly presented, testimonies seemed slow in coming. I put aside the temptation to see the congregation as unresponsive. I prayed to know that they were constantly receiving from God exactly what they needed. And I saw that, though I stood at the desk, I was a co-recipient.

As I worked to see, beyond the familiar faces, the perfect man Science and Health tells us Christ Jesus saw, ^{See Science and Health, pp. 476–477 .} I suddenly realized how beautiful each person really is. Each revealed something of his eternal, beautiful individuality, of which the human is at best a symbol, and the generic beauty of man as the complete expression of his Maker. Needless to say the service became jeweled with testimonies.

Thus my friend's gift taught me a new appreciation of the eternal beauty that shines through all our human experience. If we use our spiritual discernment, we can separate the real universe from mortal limitations and see the true individuality and eternal spiritual beauty of each flower, mountain, and man, haloed with Love and delineated by Mind.