As Harold buzzed the stubble off his chin, he leaned into the bathroom mirror wondered why he hadn’t noticed the puffy bags under his eyes before. He ran a brush through his thinning hair and groaned over how many were gray. And those hairs hanging out his ears made him think of a dried-out tassel on a withered ear of corn.
The Bible had some thoughts about reflections, too. Proverbs 27:10 says,
As water reflects a
face, so a man’s heart reflects the man.
That verse came to mind recently when my husband and I
traveled up the picturesque Methow Valley in central Washington state. We passed by beautiful Patterson Lake, whose
placid early-morning waters mirrored the shoreline trees. Parts of the lake were a perfect reflection;
others had already been stirred, probably by fishermen, blurring and shortening
the reflection.
I thought of how when we reflect and love and peace of
Jesus, it’s evident in our faces. We’re
approachable. I have several friends
like that—and how I enjoy being with them! But I have other friends who are
plagued by anxiety or disappointment. The “peace of Christ that passes all
understanding” (Philippians 4:7) seems to have been drained from them. It’s
hard to describe, but you just know.
It may seem strange to think that God is in the face-lift
business and we lift our faces to
Him—but He is. The apostle Paul picked up on that heart-to-face connection when
he said those in relationship with Christ “with unveiled faces all reflect the
Lord’s glory [and] are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing
glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
At times my “reflection” properties are in need of
improvement, like those stirred lake waters that were no longer mirrors. Thankfully, God is on the other side of the
mirror. He sees the exterior (like the
morning chin stubble on our fiction model “Harold”) but He also sees deep
within us to who we can become in Him.
Now, that’s worth reflecting on!
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