Continuing the Meditation on 1 John

1 John 3: 1-10 - Mirror

He is the Way. He is our Hope. To fully realise Him – to become like Him – is not instant, but a lifelong process. It is a path of humility, where pride is stripped away and the heart is purified. In that purifying, we are sanctified. This is our hope: that as we walk in Him, His likeness slowly takes shape in us. It is never by our own striving, but by yielding, by being made low, that His life becomes clearer within us.

When He is revealed, we will be like Him. Even now there is a glimpse of that reality. Every moment, every encounter, is a mirror. What we see in others, in nature, in words, in art, in the small events of daily life – from atoms to our own backyard vegetable patch – can reflect something of Him in us. If the eye is clouded, the reflection is distorted. But as we are made pure, as humility clears our sight, what we see becomes clearer. Then all creation becomes a mirror of Christ – not because it changes, but because our seeing does and we do (1 Cor 13: 12).

Yet the reverse is also true. Those who do not know Him can only see themselves. Everything becomes a mirror, but not of Christ – only of their own desires and fears. Possessions become extensions of who they think they are - cars, houses, careers, even their families. Other people are weighed as assets, obstacles, or threats. The world is measured by what it adds or takes away from the self. Nothing is received as gift, nothing is joy, except what they can grasp and claim.

So, the choice is before us - to walk in humility and be purified, seeing Christ in all things and letting His reflection form within us, or to remain bound to the self, seeing only our own desires mirrored back in the world.