Windows And Mirrors

Both windows and mirrors have important places in our lives in terms of our physical world. We look into mirrors and look out of windows. We also find ourselves doing the same things in our Christian lives.

We look into physical mirrors to see ourselves. We use them to check on the way we appear physically – our hair, clothes, and make-up. However, we rarely look into the mirrors of our life to observe ourselves spiritually. We don’t look for sin, failings, poor decisions, or bad reactions. Instead, we just observe and focus on our needs.

We look out of physical windows to see things and people outside. But when we look spiritually out of the windows of our life at other people, we are sometimes quite happy to take notice of their sin, their failings, and their bad decisions, and we judge them.

Let’s think of ourselves spiritually as both a mirror and a window!

Mirrors are intended to accurately reflect things. As a mirror, how accurately are we reflecting Christ to the world around us, the church we belong to, or to our friends and family? Are we absorbing the beauty and splendour of Christ, but not really reflecting that, or reflecting it so poorly, that we are distorting the truth for them?

As a window, are we looking out at the world around us and becoming so focused on observing others’ failings that we fail to see these people as God sees them, in need of His love through us? God wants us to be His hands, His feet, and His mouth to all those outside whom we observe through our window.

We may need to reverse things from the worldly way they exist for us at present, (and I’m speaking here to myself).

In our mirror we should start asking the Holy Spirit to reveal anything in our life which causes a distortion between what we see or know of God through His word, and what we reflect back to others. We are not to dwell on our sin and failings, but to be open to God’s revelation.

Through our window into the world around us, we are to do all we can, in God’s strength, to avoid judging others. Instead, we are to seek to bring God’s love and encouragement to them, fix the sinful actions in our own lives, and bring His healing to those in need. What a difference that would make, not only to others, but to ourselves!