Something beautiful

In a scene from one of my favorite movies, "Beautiful Girls," two men are sitting on the floor late one night after a party. They're talking about the direction of their lives - what's ahead for them, what they hope for.

At one point, one of them looks down at the floor and slowly says, "I just want something beautiful, Moe."

His friend turns to him with surprise and then says matter-of-factly, "We all want something beautiful, Willy."

It gets me every time, because it's so real. And so true. We all do want something beautiful. We want to feel beautiful and lovable.

But it even goes beyond that. We want to feel there's something deep and genuine and glorious in our lives.

I'm convinced that this "something" is something divine. That is, it's something of God. So it is spiritual. And

the wonderful thing is that we all

can discover beauty and glory in our lives, no matter what our circumstances are. No matter what our age or marital status or job.

We'll have better success, though, if we look in the right direction. Unfortunately, many of us spend an awful lot of time and thought and energy looking in the wrong places, which is to say, away from God. In fact, we tend to look in just the opposite direction.

Maybe you've thought, "If I could just change this part of my appearance, or if I could just get that new house or car or ..., then I'd really be happy and feel my life was beautiful." There's nothing wrong with looking attractive or having nice things. But for many of us, purchasing more things isn't really feasible. Besides, lots of people have found that even when they can do this, they're still unsatisfied.

No matter what the situation, until we look to that "something" that is from God - spiritual and genuine - we won't have found the lasting, deeply satisfying beauty we all really yearn for.

So how do we do that? One way is through seeking the spiritual message of the Bible. You may or may not be

familiar with the Bible, but one of its main messages is that we are all God's children; that our true identity is

the image and likeness of God, of the divine Spirit. For instance, God is recorded in Isaiah as saying of His child (which means each one of us), "I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him" (Isa. 43:7).

We're created to glorify God; to reflect His glory. The beauty we seek, and the glory we long for, are spiritual. They can't be measured or weighed, bought or stolen, marred or lost.

This glorious nature is seen and felt in qualities that express God's own wondrous being. In gentleness, purity, unselfishness, forgiveness, strength, intelligence. In wisdom and grace and patience and tenderness. Such qualities are the essence, the very substance, of that "something beautiful" we yearn for. And we bring that special beauty into our lives more and more as we love these beautiful qualities and act them out.

This takes commitment, effort, and persistence. But because we are in fact the likeness of God, there's no question that we can do it.

It's actually natural for each of us to

us to express these qualities.

"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," by Mary Baker Eddy, is a book that explains our spiritual nature and tells how we can more fully express it in our lives. It gives the following description of our identity: "The sinless joy, - the perfect harmony and immortality of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness without a single bodily pleasure or pain, - constitutes the only veritable, indestructible man, whose being is spiritual" (pg. 76). Imagine, you have unlimited beauty and goodness; you are created to express perfect harmony and immortality!

If you're yearning for something beautiful in your life, look in the right direction. Look to God and to the truth that you yourself are created to express the glory of God. As you grow each day in your own expression of God's qualities, you'll discover in new and wonderful ways that you yourself are the "something beautiful" that you seek!

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society