In early 2016 our family first made the move into the Revesby district as I began study at Christ College. By God’s grace we were able to find a home large enough for our (then) four children, but it certainly came with its quirks. One such eccentricity was what we lovingly referred to as our “Christian mirror”.
In the master ensuite was a mirror set above the vanity, a common feature in most homes. What made it unusual however was that the mirror only came to the height of my chest, making it all but useless for its intended purpose. If I had to shave or brush my teeth, the only way I could really benefit from my Christian mirror was to approach it on my knees. Consider the purpose of a mirror. It’s there for you to examine the parts of you that you could not otherwise see. A mirror isn’t all that necessary to look at the back of my hands or top of my feet. I need the mirror so that I can see the extra breadcrumbs nestled in my beard, the piece of spinach caught between my teeth or the stray hairs that can’t be tamed. The mirror’s job is to expose my true state. And this is not a once off exercise. Consider how many times a day you might look in a mirror. Worse yet, imagine, in our vanity, the terror of not having a mirror at all.
James reminds us in his epistle, that the Word of God, the Bible, is like a spiritual mirror. In James 1:22-25 he writes:
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
It’s a privilege to have free access to the Word of God, to hear it taught from week to week, and to allow it to speak to us each day. But are we really listening? No doubt, we ought to approach God’s word as we do that Christian mirror: on our knees. And as we come to it regularly we ought to see both the change that God is making in our life and the transformation that is yet to take place. And what we do next ought to be in response to what we have seen or heard.
Next time you look in the mirror, take the time to reflect. Humbly prepare yourself to receive God’s Word, and ask Him for the strength to not merely hear it but do it.
God’s richest blessings,
Shane