“Magic mirror on the wall, who now is the fairest one of them all?” is a little line in the “Snow White” fairy tale. We may or may not be familiar with it. It tells of a queen who wants the mirror to give her a good verdict of her beauty. In the same way, believers want the mirror of God’s word to give us a great verdict of our faith. And when it does not, we attempt to break it but you need not break the mirror.
The evil queen did not receive a desirable verdict of her beauty from the mirror. She subsequently plotted all sorts of evil against the one whom the mirror deemed fairer. Have you never wondered why real Christians seem to suffer great afflictions? It is because the evil ones are as angry against us as they are against the Son of God. But that is a story for another day.
For now, we consider our response to the mirror that tells us things we would rather not hear. And let me tell you, the bible is full of such doctrines and instructions. I doubt there is a single Christian who has not come across something that he wished the bible had left out. You feel like breaking the word of God to suit your lifestyle but you need not break the mirror.
We like to cherry-pick doctrines and instructions to obey and leave out some. But it does not work that way. Unless God is God of all, He is not God at all. You have to be either hot or cold or else God will spew you out of His mouth. But for you to be on the right side with God, you need not break the mirror.
The Mirror Is The Word Of God
Just to be sure we do not think this is about Snow White, let us say this clearly. The mirror here is the word of God. That is what the Bible itself says. Unfortunately, many of us are hearers of the word without being doers of the word. That attitude smacks of wanting to break the mirror. However, you need not break the mirror.
And that is because the mirror is there to correct us. We must not simply look at it and go our way without adjusting our looks. Imagine that you see in the mirror that your hair is all scattered. You will not leave the house until you comb it. Or it could be that you have lipstick in the wrong place on your face. The mirror shows you where and you wipe it before leaving home.
It is the same way with the mirror of the word of God. It shows us ourselves and if our lives do not align with the word of God, we must adjust. Every attempt to make your life the standard to which the word of God must align is breaking the mirror. But that is the reverse of adjusting your hair or lipstick, for instance. You need not break the mirror by wanting God’s word to conform to your ways.
Adjustment is the other way round. You conform to God’s word; it is the mirror that can help you to make your looks and life better. Trust me, I know this is easier said than done.
For A Solid Foundation, You Need Not Break The Mirror
But in the final analysis, the word of God stands sure. It is a foundation that does not shift like the sands of life. Unless you know you need not break the mirror, your foundation shifts, like building on sand. And the bible says great will be the fall of that house and life. I pray that our lives will not fall but that involves knowing you need not break the mirror
Instead, approach the word of God as the word of God. He is God, not some superman that we can decide to follow or not. Like a true mirror, it will show you the real you. Do you know that some mirrors are false, showing you a distorted image? Not the word of God. It is so true, it is the written word about the One who is called The Truth.
That means you can trust whatever it shows you about yourself, totally. And because we came from an Adamic foundation, we are likely not to like what it shows us. We feel like taking a hammer and breaking it. But we need not break it because that is the only way we can improve. And as we improve, we find we are more and more like Jesus, a very critical step.
As you become like Jesus, those hateful parts of the bible start to become friendly and acceptable. More and more, like the prophet Jeremiah, you start to enjoy the taste of the word of God. It becomes sweet. All because you realized you need not break the mirror.
Those Who Reject This Counsel
Unfortunately, when we study the bible – for those of us who do study it – we come across something that offends us. Silently we wonder why the writers did not leave that out of the bible. You want to be like the one who looks in the mirror and goes away, forgetting what he looks like.
Or you wish the mirror was not there but trust me, you need not break the mirror of God’s word. Indeed, trying to break it by not obeying leads to real trouble. Anyone who rejects the counsel not to break the mirror is setting himself for another type of breaking. We see that in the gospel of Matthew.
It says “whoever falls on this stone will be broken. But on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” Please don’t be ground to powder by failing to completely obey God.
Maranatha!
