The Two Mirrors

I stood back looking at two mirrors. One mirror on my left and one mirror on my right. In the mirrors I saw my reflections but each mirror held a different reflection. The mirror on the left was tall and wide with an elegant gold frame that had beautiful faces and beautiful things carved into it. At the top of the frame the words "The Worlds View" was engraved in big beautiful scroll work. The mirror on my right was just the normal full length mirror size. With a plan black frame and on a piece of scrap paper taped to the top. The words "Gods View" was written in plain block letters on that scrap paper.

I turned to the gold framed mirror and looked at myself. I gasped! Suddenly all my imperfections were gone! I was tall with long legs and long golden blonde hair. My face was smooth and flawless and I was wearing the nicest clothes! I turned 90 degrees to the left and grinned, and then I turned right and smiled, then turned around and looked over my shoulder at this lovely reflection and giggled. I turned back around stepped closer and looked into my eyes. They were the most beautiful light blue instead of the ugly grey they usually were. My teeth were straight and pearly white instead of the braces I had sported for six months. I loved this! I looked like a movie star or a model! I stood twisting and turning and grazing at myself for minutes or maybe hours until I noticed the buttons on the mirrors frame. Two buttons, side by side, one was lit up and it said "Outer" and the unlit one next to it said "Inner". Just for the heck of it I pushed the button that said "Inner" and stood back to see if anything about the mirror changed. Well, the mirror didn’t change but my reflection sure did. Instead of the beautiful, slender, model that I had come to see myself as I saw a horrible little mangled creature with huge black eye and teeth like needles. It was hunched forward and almost hairless. With boney, grabbing hands and skin as pale as a ghosts. But the scariest thing was the way it... I looked at me... myself. In one look I saw the greed, the anger, the self-pity, the hatred, and the lust. It... I wanted everything and was going to stop at nothing to get it because it... I thought I deserved it.

I covered my eyes and pushed against the edge of the frame until I found the buttons. I pushed the top one that said "Outer" and looked over into my reflection and I let out a sigh of relief cause there was the beautiful me again. I stepped back and scanned myself in the mirrors reflection to see if any traces of that horrible little monster still remained. I didn’t see anything abnormal but the memory of the beast seemed to ruin the appearance of the perfect me. It almost seemed too sweet now. so sweet I felt like gagging.

So I turned to the simple, smaller, and less attractive mirror to my right. I stood so I could just fix the full view of my body into the frame and sized the reflection up. It was... me. I was disappointed. It was me. Dirty blonde hair, dull grey eyes, paint-spattering of freckles, short, wide and unattractive me. But the longer I stared the more satisfied I became with my image. I wasn't going to win Miss America, but those freckles were mine and for once I didn’t mind. I stared for only a minute then got board and saw the same two buttons on this mirrors frame as I saw on the last. I reached out then hesitated... what if that same terrible thing was going to show up if I pushed the button that read "Inner"? I took a deep breath and held it as I closed my eyes and pushed that button. I waited a second then opened one eye and looked at the reflection of me. Then I let out my breath quickly and jumped back. That wasn’t me in the mirror! Not at all! It was a man! But he moved when I moved and waved when I waved. I was so confused but I stared at this man that was my "inner" reflection. He was a little taller than me with tanned skin, black hair, black beard, and deep brown eyes. The kind you could get lost in. I stepped closer and so did he. I looked at his clothes. He wore a plain white, well-fitting T-shirt with well-fitting, dark wash jeans. His shoes were Adidas running shoes and he had a small wooden cross necklace hanging around his neck. I reached up to touch the mirrors surface with my hand and the reflection did the same and I saw it. It was red and raw and horrible. A puncture wound was in the palm of his hand. It was the size of a quarter and the rest of his palm was still smeared with blood and swollen. It made my hand hurt looking at it but I kept on looking. Then I looked into the eyes of this man and saw the things I longed for most but never found. Kindness, peace, joy, hope, understanding, compassion, grace, acceptance and salvation. But above all I saw love... unending, passionate, powerful, enduring, crazy love for me. I smiled and I felt myself start to cry. I knew who this man was. This man was Jesus and He was inside of me because years ago I had asked Him to be there and, even though I had forgotten Him, He was still there. And because He was inside me it suddenly made the outside of me seem a whole lot prettier.