Mirrors and Windows

Let me ask you a question, "Do you spend more time looking out a window or looking into a mirror?" Personally I find myself looking out the window much more often - checking on the kids, watching my husband or enjoying the beauty of God's great outdoors.

And it's great to look out the window when our intent is to see what's outside, but this past Sunday during the children's sermon our pastor made us think about things in a different way. You see he held up the window first of all and as the kids looked through it, he asked them who they saw. Every one's response was the same, "Them!" They were right they saw all of us seated in the pews.

Then he pulled out his second prop and placed a mirror in front of them and they each took turns smiling and laughing as they looked at themselves. Once again they each gave the same answer for his question, "Who do you see?" "ME!"

After establishing the fact that looking through a window and mirror result in seeing two different things he went on to make his spiritual connection. He brought up Jesus words in Luke 6:41-42, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."

Then in an attempt to explain this to the children (and all of us adults in the pews!) he spoke of how it's easy to look through the window and see what everyone else is doing. Think about the last time you just gazed out your window - it's simple and doesn't involve work. There may even be times we don't like what we see or moments we're glad it's someone else doing the work, but when we're on the inside looking out, in a way we are removed from the situation.

Now switch gears and think about the mirror. As I do this I think of the pastor making comments to the kids as they each took their turn looking at themselves - he'd say, "See yourself. Aren't you cute? What do you see? Do you see you're missing your front teeth?" This comment was made for my little Joy and after he said he put the mirror back so she could see again; well this time she was embarrassed and didn't want to look.

I knew the point he was making Sunday morning and her reaction instantly hit me - how often do I (and perhaps you) do the same. We go to the mirror and don't like what we see. Sometimes that's physically and others it's on a spiritual level and like Joy it can be easy to throw up our hand so we can't see or simply walk away and not deal with things. But that is not what we need or God wants. No, He wants us to deal with the issue! Only when we remove the log from our own eye and the sin from our own life can we help others do the same!

So today if you find yourself glancing out the window, don't forget to spend time first looking in the mirror!!!