submitted
by Pastor Van
For if anyone is a hearer of
the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a
mirror; for once he has looked at
himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. James 1:23-24
Many
of us have something that has come down through the family and is now a part of
our home. It may be an heirloom that is
treasured because of its financial value or a table that was made by some
family member years ago. Possibly it is
an old trunk that is collecting dust in the attic or storeroom you just won’t
get rid of because it holds some fond memory of your family’s experiences.
Looking
at an antique mirror that we have on a wall I thought about what it could tell
if it was able to share all that it had reflected since it was made. When purchased I’m sure it was quite
expensive and probably adorned a rather well appointed room. As the years went by it may have been replaced
with a newer, brighter mirror or even a picture. Possibly it found its way into the room of a
young lady who stood for hours seeking the proper look with clothes, makeup and
jewelry.
Still,
I could not help but think about what the mirror must have seen. Through the years in a family it may have
reflected a lot of different things.
Possibly it reflected the images of love and tenderness as new parents
held their baby before the mirror. It
may also have reflected the last look of a grieving widow as she prepared to go
to the funeral of her husband of over fifty years. All of the history of the family was
reflected there.
There
is one thing for sure; the mirror reflected what was real. Mirrors cannot lie. They merely reflect the images before
them. While we can put a spin on what
took place in our lives and families, the mirror just reflects the truth. Families have times that are good and times
that are not. There is love and
sometimes hate. There is faith and there
is fear. The mirror sees it all and just
reflects the truth. Try as you might,
you just can’t fool a mirror.
As we
consider the mirror of our lives we might not like what we see. The real issue is not whether we like it or
not, but whether we will see it honestly.
James says that we are prone to consider the mirror and forget what we
really look like. We put a spin on what
we see and fail to be honest about our need or sin. Such dishonesty with the true reflection of
our lives stops us from dealing with ourselves.
He speaks of the Word of God as the mirror we fail to believe. We glance, but do not look intently enough to
see the truth about ourselves. We walk
away unaffected by what was reflected.
But there is another mirror in our life as believers; it is the mirror
of the glory of the Lord. We will be
like Him! There is coming a day when
every believer will look into the mirror and see reflected the very face of
Christ! All sin gone, all righteousness
received, we will be like Him! The
mirror will not lie. God will complete
His work in us.
Scripture to Claim
But we all, with unveiled
face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed
into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the
Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18
