One of the first things many of us do in the morning is look in a mirror. How do I look today? What do I see? Perhaps someone who is tired? Or awake? Or old? Or beautiful? Or fat? During the day any mirror we pass (or shop window or any reflecting surface) we snatch a quick glance ... Maybe adjust something here or there. Surveys tell us that on average we tend to look in a mirror around ten times every day.
J. K. Rowling makes an interesting use of our reflecting habits with the Mirror of Erised in the Harry Potter saga. Harry finds the ornate, standing mirror when exploring Hogwarts under his cloak of invisibility. He looks in the mirror and sees behind him his mother and father, who had been killed when he was a baby. Headmaster at Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore says that the mirror shows the "deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts." Turn the letters of Erised around and you get "desire," for "Erised" is "desire" spelled backward. According to Dumbledore, the happiest person in the world would look in the mirror and see her reflection, exactly as she is. In the Potter story Harry and Ron see in the mirror what they most want to see. Dumbledore confesses to seeing a pair of thick wool socks. Did he not want to tell what he truly saw? Or had he become the non-attached sage who had moved beyond desire, at peace in himself, content in the world?
What we see in the mirror is complex, I suspect depending much on our sense of self and frame of mind. In a happy state we look good. If we feel depressed we will see a depressed person, and sink further. Feeling old? You will see old. We see in the mirror what we bring to the mirror, not only physically but psychologically and spiritually too.
The apostle Paul In the New Testament made use of the idea of a mirror. He says, "God is Spirit [ineffeable, essential] ... all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of God as reflected in a mirror." Now there's a thought! I wake up, I walk into the bathroom, I look in the mirror and what do I see? Another day older, bags under the eyes, another grey hair. Or do I see reflected there the glory of God. Could it be? In the face of this weak, imperfect, fickle, aging human being the glory of God? It might mean a restructuring how we think of God. Perhaps, it is not so much God "out there" but God "in here." God as Spirit in everything that is, the life, the essence, the animation in all. The Psalmist sang, "The heavens proclaim the glory of God, the skies display God's handiwork." I used to hear the Psalmist lauding a God who set things in motion, stood back, and admired all that was made. I now hear the Psalmist singing of God as Spirit in everything that exists. Everything reflects the glory of God, for Spirit is in all. That includes you and me.
+Ab. Andy
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