Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Reflecting

I remember a bad prank of years ago called, "The Bohemian Mirror." Now, I am not prejudiced at all against people with this ethnic background (they're in my family), but growing up on a farm and attending Prairie High School of Cedar Rapids, Iowa (affectionately called "Cow Pie High"), necessitated that all pranks and jokes involved these people in some way, as they were everywhere!

The joke goes like this: You ask someone, "Do you want to see a Bohemian mirror?" When they say, "Yes!" you begin to motion to them with your hand and say "Come Here" as you encourage them to follow you. What the person on the butt end of the joke doesn't realize is that the prankster is really saying, "Come, Mirror!" It usually takes 30 seconds or so for the one being fooled to realize this, and that as they have been following the prankster around the room, they in essence, have become...they are...the Bohemian mirror, as they go wherever he or she goes.

A bad prank, I know, but it made me think of something deeper...a lot deeper. God's Word makes it clear that we are to reflect Jesus to our world. In other words, when people look at us, they should get a pretty decent picture of what Jesus is like. The key part that struck me in this is that a mirror (us, in this case) will only reflect what it is following...what it is "looking" at.

This means that the only way we can reflect Jesus is to follow Jesus. We can't expect to reflect Him if we are not following Him. Perhaps more importantly, our lives will reflect whatever we are following...good or bad. Kind of raises the stakes on being careful of what we place our focus upon, doesn't it?

Who or What are you focused on...Where are you "looking"...Who are you following? We will each ultimately reflect that on which our focus lies. "For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he" Proverbs 23:7. If I am going to reflect Him, may I always be sure that I am following Him, and not my own ideas or ways!