I woke up this morning thinking about mirrors. Isn’t that the strangest thing to be thinking about when your eyes open for the first time on a Saturday morning? I couldn’t imagine why I was thinking about mirrors. I hadn’t dreamed about them, I hadn’t read about them before bed, I hadn’t discussed mirrors with anyone-not even myself-before drifting off last night. So why in the world…?
Absent of any reasonable explanation, I followed my wandering thoughts to mirrors of all kinds. The gold framed one I bought at an estate sale months ago I’ve yet to hang because I can’t find the right place for it. The often unflattering dressing room mirrors I will ultimately have to face on my quest for the best (or least worst) bathing suit for the summer. The fun house mirrors seen at every carnival, haunted house, or boardwalk amusement I’ve been strong enough to brave over the years. The magic mirror in fairy tales. And lastly, the one I stare into every morning as I ready myself to start a day and every night as I end one.
Mirrors were fun when I was a kid. Once discovering the magic of reflection, I could spend the better part of an afternoon writing words “in code” — which meant backwards, just so I could hold them up to a mirror to read. Reflection isn’t magical anymore; it can actually seem quite cruel first thing in the morning.
Thoughts of mirrors were just a neurological segway to the real issue at hand-reflection.
Unlike true mirrored reflections, our everyday personal ones can be skewed. What of ourselves are we reflecting onto someone else? Are we seeing them for who they really are or a reflection of our experiences put on them like a jacket we either love or hate? What do others see when they face us…a reflection of acceptance and grace or one needing to be examined with timidity from a distance?
Many people live coded lives, portraying a life backwards (opposite) of what is really true. One persona in public, one in private. This has to be exhausting; wondering if they will pass by or stand in front of a mirror that turns the code, revealing their true selves. I’ve experienced this kind of bondage firsthand and it’s debilitating to the soul.
What if we could experience freedom by living lives mirrored in truth? What if our life reflection is one so led by the Lord that we see ourselves the way He sees us? What if when others look at us they see their truest selves because of the grace that lives in us?
My rambling thoughts have led to fervent prayers. Prayers that I will reflect the Jesus that lives in me, prayers that I will be a channel of grace so someone else can see themselves as God sees them, prayers that the Lord will reveal any soul blemish I’ve been trying to hide. Prayers for a friend who is, I believe, living in the bondage of a coded life.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18 ~ “ But whenever a person turns to the Lord , the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 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.”
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