Q: I have often wondered at Mary Baker Eddy’s statement “… matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal phenomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always erroneous” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 277). Though I understand that she is waking us up to mankind’s dream of a material world, it feels to me like the “beautiful” things in our human experience are the ones that draw us closer to God, or remind us of His creation. Can you help me here? —A reader in Connecticut, US
A: Yes, that statement of Mary Baker Eddy’s has often given me pause. I believe “beautiful things” in life can and do draw us closer to God. But I also know, as we grow spiritually, we begin to drop the limited material thought behind the beautiful things we come upon. We increasingly see God’s incredible beauty as Spirit.
Living in the Northwest of the United States, my wife and I have come to appreciate the beauty of the mountains around us. She spent summers of her teen years in the Canadian Rockies and I in the Sierras of California. When I was in college, I took classes in geology, and after we were married I would explain to her what I saw in the mountains from a geologic standpoint. She, being a history of art major, would tell me her vision from an artistic viewpoint. This gave a new dimension to my thinking, for I realized that she was seeing the majesty of the mountains.
