Through the Looking Glass
Unloading for one of the few events not canceled last fall, I dropped my display mirror. I had a moment of frustration at myself, a moment of sadness because I didn’t have a backup, and finally, grace and laughter. However, I kept the mirror long enough to take some pictures, because a shattered mirror has deep applications for life lessons. How we see ourselves impacts the way we see the world around us. What do you see when you look in the mirror?
The Broken Mirror
Have you ever broken a mirror? Besides the superstition of bad luck associated, breaking a mirror is a mess. A broken mirror cannot be repaired. You will have shattered, jagged pieces that distort your reflection. Tape and Glue won’t help. The shards scrape and cut, causing pain of varying degrees. The tiny splinters may take days, weeks, months, even years to clean, because the pieces are so tiny. Even these minuscule remainders can hurt.
The Distorted Mirror
Have you ever been to a carnival and ventured through a funhouse? Maybe you laughed at the distortion in the funhouse mirror. Maybe you said, “It would be great to really be that tall/short/skinny.” These mirrors are meant for fun and entertainment, but some of us look at our reflection through such contorted lenses. Instead of believing that we are enough as we are, we walk away from our reflection saying, “this is as good as it gets.”
The Mirror Image
A mirror contains a thin layer of silver nitrate or aluminum behind a flat piece of glass. This creates a reflective surface through which light bounces off to create a replicated image. We see exactly what is placed in front of the mirror, though the image is reversed. A reflection simply shows what is on the surface. It does not lie. In contrast, the refraction of light makes things like corrective lenses, telescopes, and magnifying glasses, even prisms and rainbows possible. Why do I bring up this difference, aside from my own nerdiness? Too often we see things through a refracted lens rather than seeing Truth.
How do you see yourself? Do you want to change the reflection? This post is part of a longer presentation in our Wavemaker Life Ministry.