Somewhere in the beginning of each day, you probably find yourself looking at your reflection in the mirror. Many of us never give a second thought as to how that reflection is produced. All surfaces reflect some light, but only a special type of surface reflects light in such a way that it can form a mirror. In 1835 German chemist Justis von Liebig devised a process for coating plates of glass with metallic silver. This was the beginning of the mirror as we know it today and helped it become a common household item. The mirrors in our homes are made in similar fashion by evaporating a very thin layer of silver onto glass.
We see that God likens His Word to a mirror in James 1:22-25, “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” As we look into God’s Word, it reveals who we really are in light of His holiness.
God also teaches us that He wants our hearts and lives to be mirrors that reflect His glory and grace. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:49, “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” He expressed it this way in his second letter to the believers at Corinth, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Are you the mirror that God wants you to be? Just as it takes that right material (silver, which is a precious metal) to make the best mirrors, God desires for our hearts to be filled with His Spirit so that we can be a clear reflection of His glory. The Apostle Paul states this truth in Second Corinthians 3:18 when he wrote, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” As we allow the Holy Spirit of God to control our lives, He can make us the right reflections He has purposed for us to be.