Reflections

"Abby, what do you think of when you hear the word "reflections"?
"A mirror."
"Elizabeth, how about you?"
"Yeah, I agree with Abby...I think of a mirror..."
"A mirror?...  wow... a mirror. hmmmm ...what if we are like little mirrors walking around in this world....what do people see?", I responded back to my girls on our way to school yesterday morning...I've been pondering that thought ever since...
Have you ever experienced someone seeing themselves for the first time? I have and I must say it was a pretty amazing moment... think about it, there are places in this world where there are no mirrors, people don't stand in front of them or hold them up to see what they look like every morning, noon or night even...hard to imagine, right? So, when I was in another country a few years ago and took a picture with an elderly lady, when she saw that picture, her own face, teeth, wrinkles and all, she just stared for a few seconds...then she began to smile...then she smiled big...I didn't understand her spanish, but I just knew she was pointing and had to be saying, "me, that's me". It was then that realized this was possibly one of the few times she may have ever seen what she looked like. Maybe the first time even of seeing her own reflection. She continued to just stare at her picture. It was so awesome and It was soooo hard for me to take my camera back....
I can't imagine not having a mirror to stand in front of every morning...I even like to look in the mirror after lunch to be sure I have no food between my teeth, I look at it before I go to bed at night too... when I was camping in the bush of Kenya, I even had a small mirror hanging in the tent to look into...to check my reflection...
Mirrors. We love mirrors, don't we? We like to see what we look like and we like to try to improve what we see...That's just how we are...If you think about it, we are kinda expected to do that, aren't we?... We expect each other to look in the mirror and make some improvements before walking out of our front door every day. But how about the inside stuff too? The stuff not so easily seen by ourselves nor by others. Are we just so concerned about our outer appearances? I've been found guilty on many days. Do we ever take as much time examining our inside stuff: our mind, will and emotions as we do our outside stuff? Not often enough...
Here's some interesting words from James..."My dear brothers and sisters, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Your anger can never make things right in God's sight. So get rid of all the filth and evil in  your lives, and humbly accept the message God has planted in  your hearts for it is strong enough to save your souls. And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don't obey, you are only fooling yourself. For if you listen and don't obey, it is like looking at your face in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you keep looking steadily into God's perfect law- the law that sets you free-and if you do what it says and don't forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. If you claim to be religious but don't control your tongue, you are just fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us." James 1:19-27
Wow! James just said a mouthful, right?! James didn't play, wouldn't you agree? He just pointed out some pretty important stuff when it comes to us being little mirrors walking around this world...when it comes to us looking ourselves in the mirror of God's Word and reflecting who it says we are...
Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get angry...When I think of those words, I think of being still... just sitting there, listening and calmly resting before a great God...under a bunch of palm trees...When I think of the word reflections, I think of water...some of you are thinking, "of course you do!" Palm trees are found beside water...I also think of how the water has to be calm and still before it can make a reflection. If you look at the picture above, the only reason the water is able to reflect the sky above is because it has become the calm, smooth water, resting on the shore. The rushing, turning, tossing waves are not the part of the water that does the beautiful reflecting...
As we wade through this ocean we call life we can be like the waves are: tossing and turning, stirring things up, or we can be like the calm, still water, resting and reflecting God's grace because He has taken us safely to shore. There's a huge gap between the two, but I believe it is possible. I also believe it is His Holy Spirit that closes the gap. His Holy Spirit is often related to water in the Bible. His Holy Spirit is the water we need to cover us, making us calm, smooth and still in the midst of waves crashing all around us, making us able to reflect God's grace. God's Word says in Zechariah 4:6, "It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit says the Lord Almighty."
We can also go through life looking in the mirror and just walking away, doing things that make us forget what we look like...Or we can look in the mirror of God's Word... We can find what He says about us and we can put that on just like we would our clothes or makeup. We can start wearing what God's Word says about us. His word says we are righteous in Christ Jesus. We are the apple of His eye. We are His and He is ours. We are more than conquerers through Christ Jesus. We are set free. We are redeemed. We are covered by the blood of Christ and that blood, that blood, when God the Father looks at us reflects the most amazing thing...When we realize we are covered in the blood of Christ, then we realize that God sees a reflection of Christ when He looks at us...that's why He asks us to do amazing things! That's why He calls us to greatness!.. He sees what we don't see!! How good is that?! The next time God prompts you or myself to say or do something and our first thought is, "are you kidding me right now?", maybe we should remember He's not seeing me or you, He's seeing Christ! He's seeing himself! That's just almost too good for me to move on to my next point right now...Let's just sit and think about that for a moment. He sees Christ, not me! not my weaknesses, short comings and limited resources...He sees it all different! God help us begin to obey, not based what we see when we look in the mirror, but based upon what His Word tells us, based upon what He sees when He looks at us, His mirror, the mirror made by the blood of Jesus poured over us.
"When we look steadily into God's perfect law, the law that sets us free..." ...that's a huge point James making here. Before Christ, the law was time consuming, burdensome, and very, very difficult to even come close to keeping. Ever! And it certainly didn't set people free! So now, how is it that James says, when we look at the law it actually sets us free? It's because of one word: PERFECT. The previous law has now become the Perfect law because Christ, through his sacrifice, has fulfilled the law. The imperfect has become Perfect because the blood of Jesus covered the requirement...God sees perfect, we still see imperfect. God clean our mirrors, help us to take time to wipe the dirt off the mirror that we continue to hold up to ourselves. God help us to receive the precious blood of Jesus provided to cover us completely...May your Holy Spirit work in our mind, will and emotions, our soul, today to receive your gift of this precious blood of Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice made on our behalf...may we choose to believe, to live, to walk, to wait, to obey, to reflect...to see ourselves the way you see us.
Help us to reflect on your goodness and to become a reflection of your goodness, mercy and grace. Help us to control our tongues, to simply shut up short of messing up with hurtful words, help us to listen and rely on your Holy Spirit to speak your words, not our own. Help us to show grace and mercy instead of seeking revenge and repayment. Help us to reach out to the needy all around us...Help us to refuse to allow this world to corrupt us and how we see ourselves in the mirror.
"Whatever is good and Perfect comes to us from God above, who created all heaven's lights. Unlike them, he never changes or casts shifting shadows. In his goodness he chose to make us his own children by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation BECAME HIS CHOICE POSSESSION." James 1:17&18
Reach out your hand, you're about to be handed a New Mirror.