Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?
We love mirrors. Our culture is mesmerized by them. Most of us regularly look into a mirror. We really can’t pass by a mirror without at least glancing at it. Some of us do it covertly—kind of a quick look. Others of us are pretty overt about it. We check out our teeth, our hair, our clothing. Some women spend an hour in front of one every morning. I go to a gym where guys flex in front of mirrors for longer than that. We’re into mirrors aren’t we?
Why do we look into mirrors? We look because the mirror tells us what we look like.
Mirrors are very important. A lot of us live our lives without understanding the true essence and the depth of mirrors. We’re made as mirrors. We’re made to reflect. In our original design, God fashioned us in His image. His intension was for us to reflect His glory. We’re mirrors.
Back in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had a perfect mirror. When God looked at them he saw himself reflected in a pristine fashion. Then sin entered in and spread to all of us. Our mirror was marred.
How’s your mirror? What is your mirror like? Is it cracked with anger? Is it fogged up with lust? Is it ornate with materialism? What kind of mirror are you? Who are you reflecting? What are you reflecting?
Think back over the last week. If you could freeze frame every conversation, every exchange, everything you did, would the mirror reflect the fashion of the designer? If God looked into your life, would he see his reflection or something else?
What does it really mean, though, to reflect the glory of God? In one word it means “worship.”
What does it mean to worship? To worship means to have a passion for God’s fashion. What’s God’s fashion? We’ve been talking about that. It’s being clothed in Christ. Jesus Christ has given us this incredible garment. We either clothe ourselves in Christ or not. We look at Him and see a model finally worth adoring or copying. Let’s face it-we are going to model our lives after someone, it might as well be Jesus. This is worship.
“We can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.” 2 Cor. 3:18 NLT

How do we know if we’re clothed in Christ? We have got to look into a mirror. The Bible is like a mirror. The Bible is God’s fashion magazine. We look into it and it shows us various images of Jesus and how we can wear His design. But we have to listen to it instruction or we can be self-deceived.

“Don't fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don't act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like.” James 1:22-24 Msg.

Are you looking intently into this mirror or just glancing?

May God show you who you truly were fashioned to be.
May your image never be distorted into something else.
May you display His majesty and His design.

And may you finally emerge as the beautiful human being He had in mind.

Chris