Bad Mirror Image
They’re bright, shiny and reflective, but do they show the real you?
I’m walking past some mirrors. These aren’t regular mirrors, these are (can you bring in those echo mikes, now?) MIRRORS OF DISTORTION! Wa-hoo! Let me say that again: MIRRORS OF DISTORTION! Love that echo—or does it just look like I’m yelling?
 The mirrors caught my attention. Like they do when suddenly you’re turned into Michelin Man (is there a Michelin Woman—a Mrs Michelin, perhaps?). Or you become stick person. Or you end up with a micro body and a macro head.
Remember, these are MIRRORS OF DISTORTION! You can’t believe what you see.
And it got me thinking about other mirrors—you know, the in-the-bathroom-look-at-me-type mirrors. Sometimes I look in them and don’t like what I see, and I’m not talking about the fact that they always show me in . . . um . . . mirror image (duh!).
Could my bathroom mirror be a MIRROR OF DISTORTION too? I wish.
Picture this: I’m standing in my stripey, flannelette PJs in front of the bathroom mirror checking out the patriotic (red, white and blue) eyes, shaving cream over stubble, hair . . . well, there’s little you can say about the hair.
This is not a good look.
She who loves me walks in.
“Well, hello Handsome!” she says.
I point out the PJs and the rest.
“This is not my best look,” I say, hoping I have a best look.
“You’re always handsome to me.”
Now I understand why people say love is blind. No, it’s more than that. Love actually sees beyond surface realities to the heart.
Reality check. God knows me. He knows the real me. He knows that I’m a spiritual stick figure, or a Michelin Person from being a pew sitter (pew potato?), or that I have head knowledge of Him, but my heart hasn’t caught on yet (or the other way around).
God loves me despite all this. (How much does He love me? Think Jesus.) I might see myself as distorted, but He sees what I can be, encourages me to be what I could be.
Love always looks beyond the surface. That’s why you need to look beyond any mirror, especially mirrors of distortion!
Hey, I’m whispering! Bring back those mikes!
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Bruce Manners (left) is senior pastor of
the Avondale College church.