Mirror, Mirror On The Wall

By Justin


But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:22-25 ESV)

Mirrors are reflective surfaces which provide a clear image of an object...or at least they should. 

Daily we arise from our beds; groom and dress ourselves with the aid of this reflective surface and some are more meticulous than others in this practice.  When a person looks in the mirror they are not only seeing what they are in the moment, but also comparing themselves to an acceptable visual standard. 

For example: I fix my neck tie because I know instinctively that it can and should be straight.  I do this not only because I want the appearance of the tie to meet my standard, but because others will see that it is crooked if I don't fix it. 

So the mirror is constantly telling us something of what we think about ourselves and what we think others can or will think about us.  However, mirrors are shallow in that they only reflect what we see of ourselves, but they don't provide us with the standard by which to judge what we actually see. 

When I look in the mirror I see myself compared to what I think I should be. The mirror doesn't tell me what I should be, it only helps me to see what I am now.  Wouldn't it be nice to have a mirror that not only allowed you and I to see who we are in the moment, but also provided us the image of who we should be.  The Word of God is such a surface. 

Each God breathed page acts as a mirror to our souls.  Every smudge, every blot and blemish is clearly reflected to us, but never without the clear image of our redemption. This image of redemption is not only spiritual but physical and psychological, because the true condition of our inner appearance is the source of how we perceive our outer appearance. 

The mirror in my bedroom can tell me that my tie is crooked, but only the mirror in God's throne room can show me that my heart is crooked and only Christ can straighten it out.  

Simply put, the mirror for the eyes is no good without the mirror for the soul.  May we incline ourselves to reflect upon God's Word, so that Christ might be reflected in all we are and all we do.