I have to admit that if asked to describe myself, I would probably not use the word beautiful. But a recent Bible Lesson in the Christian Science Quarterly got me thinking about beauty in a different way. Using the Hebrew lexicon in The New Strong’s Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, I investigated the words translated beauty and beautiful in the Old Testament citations in that Lesson. I discovered that there were several different Hebrew words involved, and each highlighted a different aspect of beauty.

There were a couple of verses that spoke of the innate beauty of God and His creation. The words related to beauty traced back to the same Hebrew root: yāpa. The entry in the lexicon included the meaning “to be bright.” This suggested to me that beauty is something meant to shine—not remain obscure or hidden. I have always loved spending time outdoors, reveling in the beauty of God’s creation. “Well,” I asked myself, “am I not also part of His creation?” 

The first chapter of Genesis describes man—the true identity of each of us—as made in the image and likeness of God. Could the image and likeness of God be anything less than beautiful? In her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy points out that “man is God’s reflection, needing no cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete” (p. 527). Beauty, I realized, is an essential part of our God-given identity.