Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

In Snow White, when the Queen spoke those words about “who’s the fairest of them all,” I do not think she was really asking a question.  Did she really want to know the truth, or did she want the mirror to tell her what she wanted to hear? 

 

It is like the people in this world trying to find out who they are and why they were born. 

Mirrors are interesting things.  They serve one purpose.  They reflect back what is put in front of them.  It seems that they simply tell us the unfiltered truth.  However, when we look into a mirror a strange process takes place. 

 

The image that we see before us is both accurate and distorted.  It is accurate because the mirror shows us what we actually look like at any given moment.  With women, before and after makeup tells the truth of their beauty.  At least the outward beauty. 

 

The mirror does not have any Photoshop filters to take away our blemishes or make us look younger than we are.  Mirrors are painfully accurate.  “Don’t stare too long and frighten yourself.” 

 

The backwards image we see reminds us that there are two ways that we can see ourselves, and these two ways are in constant battle. 

The first way is the raw truth about who we really are.  Especially when no one is around for us to pretend in front of. 

The second way is the distorted image that we believe about ourselves.  Every natural blemish can be a reminder of a hurt we suffered at the hands of someone who said they loved us. 

 

2nd Samuel 12: 1-4, “Then the Lord sent Nathan to David.  And he came to him and said to him: ‘There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor.  The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds.  But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children.  It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him.  And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” 

This story goes on to prove David’s anger and his final realization that he had sinned, so he spoke back to Nathan.  “I have sinned against the Lord.”  

 

 David had issues resulting in chaos and turmoil.   

And Nathan said to David, “The Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die.”  

 

David figured out quickly that the sword of his behavior would never depart his house.  He knew that the death of the child born to David, from Uriah’s wife would never live.  When that news came to him from whispering servants that the child had died, (vs 19) David knew his fasting and prayers for the child to live were in vain.  He went on to eat the food set before him, rather than weeping and repenting. 

 

It is like looking into that distorted mirror for our own selves.  We see that we are a sinner.  We know that our lifestyle without Christ in it, is causing things around us to die.  Our “sword” will not depart either, until we have a different look into the mirror God has in store for us to look into.  It will reveal our walk with Him, or our stumbling around the Cross as if to run and try to hide from the truth of God’s love for us.   

 

We can run, but we can’t hide forever.  We are either looking into a distorted view of our life, or we see Jesus in our eyes staring back at us.  Mirror, mirror on the wall.  “Who is the sinner amongst us all?”  It was David.  And us too, until we repent and ask Jesus to save our souls. 

 

Even after David lay with Bathsheba in adultery, and bore the first child who died, David was legitimately married to Bathsheba later, and she bore a son Solomon in Jerusalem. 

What a heavy price to pay for lust and murder.  David eventually cried out to God: 

“Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice.  Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.  Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.”  Psalms 51: 6-12. 

 

Repentance by David.   

It is the mirror, mirror on the wall of our hearts that we must look deeply into.  It is better to look sooner, rather than later.  Otherwise, we grow old and try to “wish upon a star.” 

 

The Bible says that David was a man after God’s own heart, and God made him a promise that his house would be great.  David seemed to be the perfect balance between a humble man who trusted and served God and a King.  And then it happened. 

 

David gave into the greatest temptation.  He believed that his power and authority was his and gave him special privileges.  He believed he had the right to stay home from the battlefield and let others do his fighting.  When he saw a beautiful woman named Bathsheba, he believed he had the power to take her.  It did not matter to David that she was married. 

David abused his power all in the name of the Lord and placed his own desires, power, and privilege as his god. 

 

I did the same thing to a degree in the early 1970’s. 

I remember the day I had to finally look into a real mirror. 

It was March 12, 1974, my 18th birthday.  I was to see my Daddy this day to pay back ten cents I had borrowed from him when I was very young.  I had purposed to be sober this day.  I went to his apartment to do the right thing for a change. 

I was a full-blown drug addict with a $200.00 a day Meth habit, along with the alcohol, Marijuana and L.S.D. that I ingested too. 

I was an out of control 18-year-old boy trying to be a man.  Not a man after God’s own heart.  I had the heart of Satan, and several demons lived inside my soul and manifested in various ways.  Armed robberies.  Assaults, and finally two attempted murders to name a few.  Burglary, carrying illegal weapons, and breaking in and entering residences.  This all included stealing out of cars that were parked in the parking lots of high-end restaurants. 

This birthday was to be special for me and for my Daddy. 

 

I ruined this day.  I broke my Daddy’s heart and drove away from his apartment. 

Before I burned rubber out of the parking lot, I got a glimpse of myself in the rear-view mirror.  I was looking into this mirror, not at myself at first, but at my Daddy standing in the parking lot screaming at me, “Come back son, I am sorry, come back Joe!” 

 

I never went back to my Daddy and his tear-filled eyes. 

 

I stopped at the stop sign to turn left.  I looked into the same rear-view mirror and realized, for a moment, what I had turned into. 

An insane, drug addict who just broke his father’s heart. 

 

Regrets?  Too many to remember. 

I was looking into a mirror which reflected backwards into my blood-shot eyes. 

I saw nothing good.  I saw an inane, inept, high school dropout.  I dropped out and dove into drugs and the lifestyle of the 1970’s counterculture. 

Daily living was a joke.  I was not living.  I was dying a slow death and headed to hell. 

My mirror was cracked with a history of abuse in my childhood.  There were spider-web style cracks all over the mirror of my heart.  Broken, shattered shards of neglect and conflict within our home.  It is no wonder that I ended up in prison.  I was destined for this life behind bars because my self-esteem was nonexistent.  I did what was expected of me.  Go to school.  I quit in my sophomore year, one year after my mother died from cancer. 

I basically quit life, yet Jesus never quit on me. 

 

There are four mirrors in life we must look at. 

Number One:  The mirror of the world. 

The mirror of the world gives us a blurry reflection.  Secular culture sets a standard of what is valued in women, and in men.  Exterior beauty in women, and muscular torsos in men are the gold standard of worth.  We see this in commercials, on the big screen, in photos and pictures on Instagram, in advertisements, and even in music.  These images send constant messages of “what is beautiful.” 

Today, social media, (nonexistent in the 1970’s) and the images of so-called successful people, tell us how to dress, act and think and live.  The gold standard is tarnished in my opinion.  God looks at the heart, not the outward man or woman. 

If we continue to stare at ourselves through the lenses of social media and how many “followers” we have, then we are doomed to have a cracked mirror.  It will crumble down, just like the glass house I lived in as a child. 

 

Secondly:  The mirror of our relationships: 

The mirrors of our relationships are not just reflective of the women we are today or the macho men who are trying to look and act a certain way.  It reflects more than image.  Our relationships are cluttered with images of who we were in the past, who we are today, and who we hope to be in the future.   

 

This includes our childhoods, youth, and any traumas we may have experienced.  I call it spiritual baggage.  Advise: talk about all your hidden baggage prior to marriage so your spouse will understand your quirks and have a Godly perspective about your need for healing from Jesus Christ.   

 

Our relationships reflect our dreams and our hopes for a better future.  Painful and positive experiences shape us daily.  Emotions are what make us human.  Not robotic or artificial. 

God gives us emotions and feelings as a guidance system for us to navigate our actions, and therefore our lives. 

Choose wisely who you plan to live with in marriage for the long haul.  They may snore so buy plenty of ear plugs or box fans to drown out the noise. 

 

Thirdly: Mirror of Religion: 

The mirror of religion reflects a shattered kaleidoscope of images back at us.  Institutional religion is the cause of pain all over the world.  The perversion of religion and the inhuman treatment of people in the “name of religion” is unspeakable.  People say, “Why don’t I go to church?”  Because I went once and did not fit into the rules and the categories, they tried to put me in.  Not to mention the Gospel preached was not the Gospel of Jesus in the way He wanted it proclaimed. 

Christians are the only army in the world that shoot their own wounded.  Fact. 

 

Lastly: Mirror of God’s Word: 

The mirror of the Word of God is clear and perfected.   

“If someone listens to God’s Word but does not do what it says, he is like a person who looks at his face in a mirror, studies his features, goes away, and immediately forgets what he looks like.  However, the person who continues to study God’s perfect teachings that make people free and who remains committed to them, will be blessed.  People like that don't merely listen and forget; they actually do what Gods' teachings say.  If a person thinks that he is religious but can’t control his tongue; he is fooling himself.  That person’s religion is worthless.” James 1: 22-27. 

 

When we look into this mirror, we learn to lead with our ears, then with our mouths.  Our actions will follow our words. 

 

God’s mirror always reveals our flaws.  We see where we need to repent.  We always see in this mirror, our Savior Jesus who died for us personally.  We see that by believing in Him.  We can be changed forever.   

 

God’s mirror is the only mirror that can create true beauty. 

No makeup needed in His mirror. 

 

“Just as water mirrors your face, so your face mirrors your heart.”  Proverbs 27:19. 

“OH, mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?” 

 

Jesus is the fairest One of all.  

 He is the perfect ONE.  Fair and equal in justice too.  His perfection through the power of the Holy Ghost, will look deeply into our hearts and He will fill us with His love and His purity.  His wholeness becomes our wholeness.  And His acceptance of us, just the way we are, requires no mirror at all. 

 

“Good luck next time Snow White.”  Jesus is not a fairytale.  Thank God for that. 

Copyright © 2025 by Joe Wilkins