Who's That in Your Mirror?

If you are a woman of a certain age, looking into the mirror can be painful.

When that smooth face gets less smooth, our whole mood can change.  The curse of the females among us!  Acne is replaced by splotches, sunburn by crows feet, and alas, some women lose all hope of a good life. 

But only if 'looks' determines life!  Only if they see something other than the truth... Too little or too much weight, features that are 'ugly', and all the rest of the desired but unrealized reflection. 

I once saw a poignant picture of a perfect apple facing a mirror, and the reflection showed an impossibly rotted apple, half bitten. Some of us do not see the reality, but somehow only see 'wrongness' in their version of what their dream would be. 

But even if the image is outside what the world around trumpets as beautiful? There is one for whom the outside appearance is nothing.

When God looks at those who have given their lives to him, he sees a beloved princess who loves his son and follows him, for HE sees beyond the surface and into the heart of the follower and is moved by love for us, warts and all!

And there are warts!  The bottom line is that we are unlovely, no matter what womanly curves, flawless skin, or thick, beautiful hair that some of us may present with on the surface. We are full of self, and sin has scarred us beyond the repair of any plastic surgeon.

 But that is not what God sees when we are in Christ, His Son!  His surgery is on the heart. He has cleansed us from all that sin and remade us in his image.  True, that image is in the process of being made during our lives, but HE sees the finished product.

So, which 'reality' are you going to believe --  Ugliness inherent or Perfection in the works when walking in the saving love of Jesus? 

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who knows real beauty in us all?  The creator of beauty of heart and spirit who sees WHO we are in Him! Believe HIM!  Search for HIM!  Listen then to HIM!  There is joy in knowing His love. And perfection beyond the looking glass.