Article December 6, 1982 Issue

Beauty is spiritual

HUGH PENDEXTER III

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.

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