As in a Mirror
"A mirror?" She questioned. "You want to show me a mirror?"
"Yes, but not just any mirror," He said. He motioned for her to look in the mirror, so she did.
"There are many ways you can look at yourself," He spoke gently to her.
Peering in, she realized it was true.
Suddenly, she was seeing herself as she imagined others saw her. Some of what she saw made her gasp in horror.
"I did not know I looked like that to them," She thought, "Must I always be conscious of this?"
"Ah, but that is not all there is," He said. "Look deeper."
She looked again, but nothing had changed. She shook her head. "I'm not sure how to look deeper."
He reached out and touched a veil that seemed to cover over her face. It was the veil that covered everything about her that she thought made her worthless.
"Take the veil off, and then you will see."
Slowly, she reached up and pulled it off, revealing the hidden things of her life that only God saw.
Her heart attitudes were uncovered, in plain sight. Her most secret thoughts laid bare. The ugly face of pride scowled at her through the glass.
Secret acts of selfishness that only she knew about looked back with ugly hatred. Sins of the past seemed to be reaching out to grab her.
Failures and mistakes looked up at her as if from a pool of mud with imploring eyes, begging her to give up on ever trying anything again.
Rogue emotions ran wild within, causing much chaos. Desires contrary to His stood brazenly against Him.
She gasped and looked away. "I can't look anymore! All I can see are ugly things that make me want to hide. Lord, there is so much wrong with me... Is this what You see?"
"Nothing is hidden from My sight, my child," He said tenderly.
"How I have wronged You..." she said, feeling deeply ashamed.
"And yet, how forgiven you are."
He looked at her tenderly for a moment, then spoke again. "But that is not all. Look again. I want you to see what I am looking at when I look at you."
She hesitated, for the ugliness that she had seen before was so hideous that she felt she would be scarred for life.
How could she look again? For if He, who knew all, said this was not everything, how much worse could it get?
Cautiously, she turned her eyes to look again in that mirror.
The ugly sin was still there. She almost turned away again.
"Wait," He said, "Look deeper, past that ugliness, and tell me what you see."
She forced her eyes to look past it all and saw something so faint, she almost didn't recognize it.
"What is that?" She wondered aloud.
"Don't take your eyes off of it, and you will know soon enough," He said.
Up out of the filth arose something so glorious, she could find no words to describe it. It was as though it had been buried under the rubbish, but her gaze seemed to cause it to rise up more alive than she ever imagined it to be.
The more she stared at it, the more it grew.
"Is that... Is that... Righteousness?" She could barely bring herself to say the word, for such beauty did not belong among such -"Wait a second... What is happening?" She gasped.
For the more she stared at the Righteousness, the more it seemed to swallow up the filth that surrounded it.
"Look within that Righteousness," He urged with anticipation.
She stood in silent awe as she studied the glorious Righteousness growing in her own reflection.
To her surprise, she found that there, nestled deep in the folds of that righteousness -the real her was hidden.
At first, she wasn't sure it was her, but the more she looked, the more she knew that, indeed, it was, for how can you not recognize yourself?
But it wasn't the girl she had seen in the mirror before. There was a glory about her, a glory that could only have come from the Presence of her God living within. A glory that had come to live there on the day she had been born anew.
The more she looked at that dazzling glory, the more a fire began to burn in her heart. She saw the flames begin to lick up the ugly impurities of her life.
She saw how she could live differently because of it, and faith arose that propelled her into action.
When she looked at others, her view of them changed. She saw them not for what they appeared to be, but for what they already were -or could be if God had His way.
And as she gazed at the glory of the Lord in that mirror, she realized that she was being transformed.
For wherever the Spirit of the Lord dwells, there is always freedom.
She turned to Him in awe. "How is this happening? How is all of that ugliness being transformed?"
He smiled. "What were you looking at, my child?"
She thought for a moment. "Why, it was You, wasn't it?"
"Indeed, it was," He said, "Keep your eyes fixed on My glorious presence within you, and you will keep being transformed more and more into that same image from one glory to the next."
She wondered aloud, "But how did I see You that clearly, my Lord?"
"You uncovered your face, my child, and you did not ignore what had been hiding under that veil.... Instead, you looked beyond it with eyes of faith at the righteousness I put there."
"You see," He continued quietly, "When you uncover your face before that mirror, but choose to look past what is uncovered at Me, you make room for Me to work. It is I who transforms you."
Silently, she gazed back into the mirror. It was too wonderful to fully understand, but at the same time, she knew she couldn't look at herself the same anymore.
...
"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 by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:18)
Comments