Story tellers have long been fascinated by the idea that there's a world through the mirror you might pass through into; Alice Through the Looking Glass the obvious example.
I always wanted to fill the house up with mirrors; not, I hope due to vanity, but reading too many interior design magazines at one stage of my life, probably. They do create interesting perspectives however. And I can never work out why it is that reflected views look more enticing than the real thing. Yet another example of being an iNtuitive perhaps?
Apparently there are eight references to mirrors in the bible, the general sense of which is of someone looking into divine things only as into a mirror - a reflection only - which will inevitably become the real thing when we can at last see clearly (St Paul) or that if we see what it is to be a follower but do not do it, we are like someone who looks in a mirror and immediately forgets what they look like (St James).
Looking into a mirror shows us what we are like. Letting God look into us, as is customary in Lent, allows us to see what we are like inside. I doubt it is possible to know God better without knowing ourselves better at the same time. That's how the mirror works: He looks at me; I see me. I look at Him; I see me. And everyone else reflected in Him. It's all about perception. Which is why Jesus said, 'the lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light, but when it is evil, your whole body also is full of darkness' (Luke 11:34).
Which makes you wonder how many times God has been asked to change a person or a situation on our behalf, when really He's trying quite hard to change us and our viewpoint instead.
So when the housework is getting on top of me, perhaps I'll go round taking a few more photos of what's on the other side of the mirror, to make everything look genuinely a whole lot better.
