You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit them together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! It is amazing to think about. Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it. [Psalm 139:13-14 (TLB)]
We women tend to consider the mirror a critic, and a ruthless one at that. I don’t know about men but I suspect you fellows may not be all that different. When we look in a mirror, the message we perceive is often disparaging and fault-finding: tired looking, “bed head,” too fat, too old, or too saggy. Then the mirror starts in our apparel telling us things are too tight, too loose, out of style, too young, too old, too wrinkled, or just plain ugly! Most of us don’t hear our mirrors affirming that we are marvelously made.
In a women’s magazine, I once read the suggestion that we stop whenever we pass a mirror, give ourselves a good hard look, and then think of something nice to say about our reflection. Admittedly, some days that’s a bit of a struggle; nonetheless, I think it is a good idea. If we can’t accept ourselves, with all of our flaws and imperfections, how can we accept the flaws and imperfections of others? If we can’t love ourselves with our faults and blemishes, how can we love our neighbors? Yet we are told to love our neighbors as we love ourselves! Loving and accepting our neighbors has to begin with loving and accepting ourselves.
On the television show “Saturday Night Live,” Billy Crystal used to play a character who would say, “You look marvelous, darling! Absolutely marvelous!” That’s what we need to hear our mirrors say to us! Of course, no matter what I tell the mirror, I will still have the grey hair, wrinkles, and age spots that come with my age and the hopelessly straight hair, freckles, and short legs that are a result of my genetic make-up. But, I will know that I am a splendid creation. I will be reminded that God created me in His own image. God doesn’t make trash! I am a miracle. God loves me, His creation, just as I am, flaws and all. I am, indeed, most marvelously made and most fully loved by my creator.
When you look in the mirror, what do you see? When God looks at you, what does he see?
I realize I have only so much say in what I look like on the outside. The age thing is the fate of all humanity. But I do have a say on the inner me. I can choose to grow bitter or better. I choose better. I choose life. [From “Hot Flashes and Cold Cream” by Diann Hunt]
“You look marvelous!” [The way we greet one another Sunday mornings at my Florida church]
I admit to having left some church services feeling like I just “mailed it in” and that’s not the way to worship our wonderful glorious God. It’s been said that familiarity breeds contempt. In the case of familiar gospels, epistles, songs and liturgy, while familiarity may not breed contempt it may breed boredom. We’ve listened to the Benediction, Consecration or Absolution so often that we don’t even hear them and we’ve said the Lord’s Prayer, recited the Apostle’s Creed, or sung certain hymns so many times that the words exit our mouths without needing to pass through our hearts or minds.
Last week, I sat down to write in my gratitude journal and couldn’t believe my eyes. I hadn’t written in it for seven days. “I write in it every day!” I protested. Surely there was a mistake—pages must be missing. It wasn’t and they weren’t—the mistake was mine and it wasn’t pages that were missing; it was gratitude! It had been a week jam-packed with family, errands, chores, and writing—a week of “same old, same old,” just at a faster pace than usual. That, however, was no excuse for a heart oblivious to the blessings of seven ordinary days. Surely, within each one of those unexceptional but busy days there had been something for which I could thank God. Although I always offer thanks in my daily prayers, that journal has been a way of making me mindful of God’s specific blessings of each day—a way of making me see His hand in a life of the “same old, same old.”
I was right. In fact, I was so right I deserved a gold star and he was so wrong that he should have gotten a big red “F” but he never admitted it. Although I congratulated myself for not saying, “I told you so!” I still wanted him to eat a little humble pie. Then the Holy Spirit did His job and rightly convicted me of being a bit self-righteous and a whole lot mean-spirited. I was reminded of Luther, a man from our church who I called “a disciple of Christ” in a previous devotion. He always greeted people with a smile and the phrase, “Jesus loves you and I do, too.” As I heard Luther’s words in my mind, I stopped in mid-gripe and remembered that Jesus loves my man and I do, too.
In the many television tributes to the recently deceased actor Gene Wilder, a scene from the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory frequently has been aired. In it, Willy tells Charlie not to forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wanted. When the boy asks what that was, Wonka replies, “He lived happily ever after!”
Devotions of the Heart 