by Scarlett Stough
Full length mirrors to a woman is an essential piece of furniture. If one does not examine the state of one's dress before leaving the house, or a public bathroom, one can be terribly embarrassed. The “one” in this case was me. I refuse to go into detail! Yet, we all have a “full length mirror” which is often ignored: the word of God.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
James 1:22-27 ESV
I don't like what I see when I look in the mirror. The sight can be downright discouraging. Timothy Keller in The Songs of Jesus pointed out “when we encounter the Lord in his Word, seeing more and more who he really is by faith, we are transformed from one degree of glory to the next….”
But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory—just as from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18 TLV
The ESV translates the same verse: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
When I look into the mirror of God's word, by seeing the image of God in that mirror, his image will be transforming me day by day, whether I can see it or not. I don't need to be discouraged by who I was or am now because I am “being transformed into the same image”—his image. When Jesus comes for me, he will finish what he started:
Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
1 John 3:2-3 ESV