While some of my family and I were in Wisconsin a few days ago to celebrate my nephew’s graduation, I went to “Mirror Lake” one morning to hike and watch the sunrise. As I was sitting on a bench looking out at the beautiful pristine lake, I was fascinated by the incredible reflection of the trees staring into the lake, so I took a picture.
The mirrored image of the trees reminded me that the reflection in the lake is indeed breathtaking, but in actuality, it is a false representation or a reverse of the reality of who the trees are.
Of course, real trees can be climbed, cut down for firewood, used as a home for animals, oxygen for the air, etc. They are alive and need food, water, and sunshine to grow. They have a purpose. But the mirrored trees can do nothing but look pretty.
I hope this simple analogy reminds you that your value and purpose come from the truth of what the Bible says about you, not the lies the reflection in the mirror is telling you.
“For if anyone only listens to the word without obeying it, he is like a man who looks very carefully at his natural face in a mirror; 24 for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he immediately forgets [what he looked like. 25 But he who looks carefully into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and faithfully abides by it, not having become a [careless] listener who forgets but an active doer [who obeys], he will be blessed and favored by God in what he does [in his life of obedience].” James 1:23-25