When we look into the mirror each day, what do we see? A new gray hair? A new wrinkle where there weren't any before? Maybe we find a blemish or two. Most of us are quick to pick out the imperfections we find rather than in rejoicing that the Lord made us just the way we are. So often, we only see the imperfections in our reflection based on the world's standards or what others have told us. If our evaluation of ourselves is based on faulty information, then looking into a mirror is like going into a fun house where images are distorted and twisted. For example, there is a woman who very much wants to look like a "Barbie doll".
Nanette Hammond (according to a TMZ website) has spent upwards to 500K in visits to a plastic surgeon in order to make her face and body look like a "Barbie Doll". At 47, she plans to continue having procedures done to keep her looking trim and fit. She has even had semi-permanent make-up applied to keep the look she so admires. While this may last for a bit, there will come a time when age will catch up with her as it does with all of us. Besides, why does she want to imitate the appearance of a doll? What is wrong with being yourself....the person that God made you to be?
Allowing people's opinions and the culture around us to be the only reference point for our appearance or self-worth can lead to depression as well as disappointment. We will never be able to measure up to what others think we should be. Putting our identity and inner peace into the hands of other flawed human beings ("For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23) is like handing a pack of matches to an arsonist. We will ride a roller coaster of emotions and ever live to please others by performing in order to feel good about ourselves. The good news is that we don't have to live like this.
There is only one perfect mirror into which we need to look every day and that is the Word of God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ frees us from the bondage of people pleasing, sin and death. We don't have to look perfect or be perfect because we can't! There has only been one perfect person in all the world and that is our Lord and Savior. When our lives are committed to Him, God does all the inner working in us so that we might bear fruit for His glory. He is our significance and our worth. All the good deeds, all the make-up and plastic surgery in the world will not make us as beautiful as we are in Christ. He alone makes us complete. He alone can fill all the desires of our heart for acceptance and love.
Psalm 139:14a-15 tells us: "I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made....My frame was not hidden from You, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth." God made us just the way He intended for us to appear. He purposefully knitted us together, and in this, we should rejoice. In addition to this, God has given to us a new heart in Christ at the moment He brought us to life in Christ. We are a new creation....no need for surgery. God has already done the job! Now we can share the light and life with others who are also trapped in the people pleasing trap of life. We are no longer chained to the old mirror on the wall. Instead, God has give us His Word and the more we look into it on a daily basis, the more He will refine us to look like Jesus. In addition, there will be a day when we get a new body that will never die, get sick or decay. We will live forever in His presence. Let us resolve today to spend less time looking into a mirror on the wall that shows us our flaws and more time looking into His Word/mirror that tells the truth about who we are and who He is. We will know the truth and it will set us free! Selah!
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