Fragments of a Shattered Mirror

We were created in the image of God. You can say we are little action figures of Him or mirrors that are supposed to reflect Him. But our mirrors have been shattered by our sins. We were created perfect, only to destroy that perfect image. We were never gods ourselves, much like a mirror is never a person, but when the mirror is perfect, you can see what's reflecting off of it perfectly.

When it's shattered, you see fragments. You don't get the complete picture. And what you do get is corrupted. It comes back at a different angle or has those cracks in it that cover up part of the image. It's nowhere near the same as what it was meant to be.

Christians and non-Christians alike were made in God's image. Both have had their mirrors shattered, so neither portrays God like we were meant to. Yet, with a fractured mirror, you can still see some of what the mirror is reflecting. Some pieces of the mirror may be broken, some lined so heavily with those cracks that you can't make anything out in patches, but some parts are in tact enough that you can look at them and see some of what you are meant to see. It's why some non-Christians can be selfless (or nearly so) on occasions and dive on a grenade for their friends or push a stranger out of the way of a bus. It's why they can be forgiving and generous and genuinely interested in others. It's part of what they were meant to show coming through despite the cracks in their mirror.

Because Christians are supposed to be close to God, the world assumes (and with a degree of validity) that our mirrors are supposed to have fewer cracks, that we are to practice what we preach. The problems with this are two-fold:

1. Our mirrors are never crack-free on this earth. It is God working in us to restore the damage our sin has done, but we are still humans, and thus we will never be perfect mirrors for God in this lifetime. If the world holds us to this standard, they will inevitably be disappointed and jaded. Christians should do what the Bible says, but...

2. Our primary message should not be that one has to strictly adhere to the law. It wasn't Jesus' message, why do so many Christians make it theirs? Jesus message was simple: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. And if you're doing the first, you'll automatically be doing the second. When non-Christians get on us for our hypocrisy, it's not just calling us out on our sins, it's calling us out on our message to them. If our message is that God loves us all and wants us to be in Him and know Him, that our ticket to Heaven is His Son and not our good works, that God loves us in spite of our failures and not because of what little good we do (which is almost always tainted with selfishness anyway), then we will help people to look beyond the cracks that are still in our mirrors and, through God's grace and help, become closer to the image of Christ that we were meant to be.