I do not know about you guys, but for the longest time I tried to avoid the man in the mirror. If I had to go out on a whim, I would guess that at least a few people that are going to read this ,have at some point or another, avoided that person that will look right back at us. Before I go any further, I want you to stop reading after this paragraph and look into a mirror, or your phone in selfie mode. This blog will still be here when you are done looking, but I want you to really look at yourself not just a glance, really look at yourself.
I do not know what you think that you saw when you looked, but I know exactly what you did see… you saw a child of the living God who carries the image of him inside and out. We did this exercise for CGA, but instead of a couple minutes of looking into the mirror, it was AN HOUR AND A HALF!!! We were told to find a mirror and look at it and look for the image of God in ourselves, because God made us in his image so we are carriers of that image. This was very hard for me to do because I usually avoid looking in the mirror, maybe a glance as I walk past, but I would stand there for five minutes. Much less an hour and a half. Every time that I looked into the mirror I would find a flaw about myself and use that to tear myself down, so I avoided it at all costs, because I did not want to hear what the man in the mirror would tell me. This assignment was an hour and a half meeting with the man I had been running away from for so long.
When I was in school I was told that I was not good enough and that I did not measure up. Eventually the voices went away, but there was one that rose up louder than any of the others had been… it was my own. I began to pick myself apart far worse than any other voice had done before, because this one knew what strings to hit. When I sat down at that mirror for class, I knew it was gonna be a fight, but I had to do it. I found a mirror down away from everyone else, and war started. I started picking myself apart like I had done before, but I could not run this time. For the hour and a half that I sat there tearing myself down, and I left without finding the image of God in myself, just traits of God that I had been told people saw in me. We met as a class upstairs and everyone had to share how it went, and I had to share about the man looking back at me, that tore me down. I was told that I should probably spend some more time on this activity until I found out for myself where the Image of God is in me.
I want to take a look at Genesis 1 for a minute. So just a recap of the story God created everything on the Earth in 6 days, and the on the 7’th he rested. The first five days he makes the heavens and the earth, light and darkness, the sky, he separated the seas, made dry ground appear, made all the plants, the sun and the moon, the fish and the birds, and the animals on the land. God said that all of that was good. Your favorite animal, your favorite plant, your favorite food, it is all just good. But later into the sixth day God made mankind in his image, and do you know what he said? He did not say it is good or okay, he said it is VERY GOOD.
God made us in his image and calls us very good, so who do we think we are to pick that apart. Who do I think I am that I pick apart the image of God that he calls very good. After we got back to our house after that session of class, I went up to our mirror ,in the bedroom, and wrote “Son Of God” in big letters. So now when I look into the mirror I do not see some to pick apart, I see the truth that God loves me and calls me his own.
Do not be afraid of the man in the mirror anymore. Take control of that voice and speak truth and life over yourself instead of letting that voice find a way to get in and tear you down. YOU ARE THE IMAGE OF THE LIVING GOD WHO CALLS YOU VERY GOOD!!!
