Have you ever looked in the mirror and seen a pathetic person looking back at you? Have you ever looked at your hand after washing them and seen hands covered with the stench of wrongs they had committed? Have you ever looked at your life and think about how undeserving you are of where you are? I have.
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” The famous line from Snow White fairy tale. What exactly do you see when you look in the mirror? Do you see the fairest of them all? On any typical day, I would. I would see the fairest of them all. The one who has life all together, not a worry in the world. I would see hands that have been kept clean. A life that I deserve to be living. Well, that’s all on the surface, naturally.
Yet, the reality of the truth prompts the queen’s shock when she discovers that Snow White is the fairest of them all. As a Christian, I believe in the redemption of all that I have messed up; that, as it were, I have a clear record. However, the stark reality hit me this morning, while there is indeed a God who clears our record, it doesn’t make us perfect, does it? We’re just as messed up as the next person if not more.
I looked in the mirror and I saw a proud, self-righteous, angry little prick. I had washed my hands and I felt as they were even more dirty than before I had washed them, covered with the dirty deeds they’d committed. I looked at my life and saw how disgustingly undeserving I am of the life I enjoy each day. I have no rights to the way of life I have, what makes me any better than the next person…nothing!
Before you start on the forgiveness-and-restoration-speech, I know it all. I dare say, I know it better than most. Doesn’t mean I like it and I want to accept it. I’m proud after all. I know how much I suck and just because God, through the death of Jesus, is able to forgive me and restore me it doesn’t make it any better. In fact, it makes me sick and all the more worse. To know that I’ve failed again! So many times! Yet, I will come to the point where I will bend my knee. When I will accept and recognise the forgiveness-and-restoration-speech…when I will look in the mirror and see Jesus Christ.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
