While I hope you enjoyed last week’s reflective exercise of contemplating what you see in the morning mirror and what you can learn about yourself, I fear this week’s discussion may be unpleasant for all of us – at least the first part.
I took it relatively easy on you last week as we ventured into our bathrooms and faced the person we first saw in the mirror. Well, this week we’re pulling out a loved and feared contraption for a new perspective: the makeup mirror.
Have you used a makeup mirror before? They’re small, round, and often on a separate stand, looking like a cute – and even elegant – accessory for the interior design of the bathroom in which they reside. Hotel rooms sometimes have them attached to the wall. They’re actually horrifying at first if you’re not accustomed to seeing what your skin, pores, and individual hairs look like under magnification!
What’s their purpose, you ask? For those interested in laser-like precision when applying eyeliner, mascara, or other makeup applications, makeup mirrors provide a zoomed-in view of where the makeup should land. Worried about what’s living in your pores? (Okay, that’s gross, and I apologize.) The makeup mirror will tell you what’s in there and guide any subsequent extractions. Ew.
So, you’re wondering, if that was the literal reflection of the day, what are we doing with the metaphorical? We’re zooming in on the deepest layer of what we need to confront as we step into purposeful living: our sinful natures. In Romans 3:23, we face a makeup mirror: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We face another one in 1 John 1:8: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
It is in this makeup mirror that we realize how deeply our flaws and failures run, and we are helpless to extract them on our own. Paul lamented this fact in Romans 7:24 after spending the previous verses confessing his sinfulness: “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” We echo those words as we confront who we really are as sinners in the makeup mirror of God’s holiness.
But Paul’s lament didn’t linger for long, and we don’t need to either! In the very next verse, Paul provides us with the blessed assurance of the most beautiful extraction: “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25)! We are set free from that harsh reflection of our sin, and we now see what God sees in us: a new, redeemed, blameless creation.
Rejoice today that you are free to purposefully live as a reflection of the God who loves you this much!
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