If we need proof of the unlimited possibilities for the expression of the physical body, all we have to do is look around! What variety we see in people’s bodies. Some we call beautiful, some we may see as unattractive, but each one is an individualized expression of the divine idea of physicality. A few years ago there was a movie called, “Simon Birch” which presented a powerful message about our judgment by appearance.

Simon was born dwarfed and deformed. His father was so disappointed in his son’s appearance that when he brought his wife and newborn home from the hospital, he let them out in front of the house and said, “I’m going to work now.” As Simon grew, he could not do the things other boys could do though he tried very hard. One day on the way home from a day camp, a bus filled with young children had an accident and ended up in a river. All the children panicked except Simon. He took charge and the children followed his instructions. The kids always listened to Simon because of his small size and indomitable spirit. One by one the children were passed out the back door to an older child who carried them to shore. When it appeared that all the children were off except Simon, the bus slipped further into the water and the rear door jammed shut. Simon realized that there was one more child still on the bus with him. He found the last child held under water because his foot was caught in a scat. Simon was just the right size to be able to free him and get him to a window. They were both the right size to pass through it to safety. Later, at the hospital, his older friend visited him and as they talked, Simon spoke about his purpose in life and said, “Well, I have to go now.” He closed his eyes and was gone, his purpose fulfilled.

While we have many ideas about what is a perfect body, Charles Fillmore said in Talks on Truth, “The body is the meeting place of the life and substance attributes of Being, consequently body is an important factor in consciousness. Body is not matter; it is substance and life in expression.” (page 158) We are three-fold beings. We are spirit expressing through soul or consciousness within a physical body. In Creative Mind there is one idea for the body, but that idea is capable of an infinite variety of expression. Each body is a perfect expression of God-life and substance that is formed and shaped by the matrix of consciousness. At every moment in time the body is an accurate out-pictunng of our deepest beliefs. It is also plastic, a dynamic and changing vehicle responsive to evolving awareness.

For a moment think about all the things you have inflicted upon your body and how it has stood up under the barrage of every’ kind of false influence, stuffed with all sorts of foods, almost drowned with numerous forms of drink, and subjected to changing weather, beliefs, and emotions. Yet it still stands. Year after year the cells renew themselves and year after year we impress upon those new cells the same beliefs in age and limitation. We might retain our bodies indefinitely if our minds kept pace with this renewing process in every cell. If we treated the physical body honestly, justly, and as the holy vehicle of Spirit that it is, it would shine with the glory of the Creator as it was intended to do.

Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, taught that there is no reality in matter and according to the previous quote, Charles Fillmore would agree. The common idea of matter is that it is a formed, solid thing separate and different from spirit. Often we contrast spirit and matter, spiritual reality from the material universe. But matter separate from spirit does not exist. The cells of our bodies arc dancing points of spiritual energy which is eternal and unchanging. Though the appearance seems to change according to the limits of physical sight, the life and substance that is every cell cannot change because it is an attribute of God and God cannot change.

The Unity Correspondence Course material states:

The third phase of our being is body, for there must be a vehicle through which spirit and soul may express. Body is primarily “a temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians. 6:16).

“When man realizes that there is but one body-idea and that the conditions in his body express the character of his thought, he has the key to bodily perfection and immortality in the flesh” (page 34, Christian Healing.

The body is, therefore, an idea in God-Mind, and is spiritual substance in form and shape, embodying all the divine ideas. “The body is the material manifestation of the life principle” (page 1, Addenda to Metaphysical Bible Dictionary). While the body is always perfect in its original creation as a God-idea, the appearance that the body takes on will be according to the use we make of divine ideas. In its physical form the body is a marvelous instrument with a divine intelligence in every atom, cell, nerve, tissue, muscle, and bone. When the soul is not using divine ideas in the right way (through the processes of thinking, feeling speaking, acting, and reacting), then it is the body that suffers, for chaotic, confused, unhappy, anxious, fearful states of mind interfere with normal functioning of the body.
—Lessons in Truth, Lesson 3, Annotation 4.

We are the temples of God, of good, and through us is this light to shine, which is so bright as to dim the rays of those shining orbs of the night and the day.
—Charles Fillmore, Jesus Christ Heals, page 115.