The Mirror of Truth

 By: Joanne Viola

 

I am not sure if it is a “girl” thing, but I know that as a little girl, I loved fairy tales. I have watched as each of our granddaughters have come to love princesses as well. Perhaps there is something in us females that has been wired to believe in fairy tales. We all want to live one, that is for sure.

Let me take you to a scene from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs":

"Once upon a time there lived a lovely little princess named Snow White. Her vain and wicked stepmother, the Queen, feared that some day Snow White’s beauty would surpass her own. So she dressed the little princess in rags and forced her to work as a scullery maid. Each day the vain queen consulted her magic mirror, “Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”… and as long as the mirror answered, “You are the fairest of them all,” Snow White was safe from the Queen’s cruel jealousy."

The Queen longed for the mirror to always respond that it was she, who was the fairest. Mirrors have a way of telling us things. Some we want to know – like when we look attractive. Some we may want to overlook – like some new wrinkles showing up. But a mirror will always speak.

Today I’m thinking about another mirror –

“But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for one he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.”
(James 1:22-24 NASB)

God’s Word is also a mirror. In reading His Word, we see ourselves in the truth of His Word. We see exactly how we are to live our lives. When we hear and do not do what His Word tells us, we are exactly like the one who would see themselves in a mirror and not remember what they looked like. We are told further …

“But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”
(James 1: 25, NASB)

When we see ourselves through the filter of His Word, apply it, change, obey it – then we find freedom. It is there that we are blessed.

James uses the analogy of a mirror to show us that if we just “glance at the Word without corrective action”, it is of little use. 

“The sense here is of an intense looking into Scripture for the purpose of self-change. The exercise is one of careful attention to learn what is wrong & to discern what ought to be done to correct it.”  (from the New American Commentary on James page 96)

The Queen’s downfall, in the story of Snow White, occurred when the mirror told her the truth, a truth that she did now want to hear. That truth was that there was something lacking in her – gentle grace. Rather than taking that truth and applying it to her life, she was filled with anger and hatred. And so her downfall began.

Today may we not only hear the Word but apply it to our lives. May we allow His truth to change us. I read this quote somewhere, and it is a good motto to live by:

“Apply yourself to the Word,
so you may be able to apply the Word to your life.” 

 

**This is an edited post from 2012 which I had written.

Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash