The Looking Glass [Jesus the Window Washer]

"I just want a clean slate."

How many times have you said that to yourself?
How often do you think to yourself: "I want to start over"?
How many times do you face the reality that people know you.  They have seen your little mistakes, like that time you accidentally said a bad word when you shouldn't have, the time you nicked a car in the parking lot with your front fender, the time when you tripped over your words while speaking in front of a crowd, or the other day when you dropped that entire stack of papers. Yep. They saw it. No turning back now.

Doesn't it just make you want to crawl under a rock?! Hopefully, you have good friends who appreciate your little quirks and see the beauty in your mishaps.

But what if they've seen your bigger mistakes?
Maybe they saw you wayyyyy drunk, loaned you money when you had spent your own on drugs, drove you for a few months after you got your license suspended for your second DUI, bailed you out of jail, or picked you up off the ground when you got in a pretty bad tussle.

Sometimes, you want to start over altogether; to go to a new place where no one knows your past, everyone knows the goodness of your heart, no one can see the smudges on your soul, and everyone sees you as you long to be seen.


Now, jumping to a seemingly unrelated topic because I couldn't think of a decent transition from one thought to the next:

"Looking Glass" is a suave, sophisticated term for "mirror."

I thought that entitling this post "The Looking Glass" would be more compelling than titling it "The Mirror." It's got some connotation of mystique that "mirror" has lost.  Like, when you think, looking glass, you think "Mirror, mirror, on the wall."  When you think "mirror" you think of a bathroom.  "Looking Glass" perhaps inspires you to think of a powder room.


When you look in the mirror, you see yourself.  (No duh.)
If you don't clean your mirror from time to time, dirt, grime, and dust gather on it, which distort the image of yourself that is reflected back to you.  In a freshly clean mirror, you see yourself fully: you look dang good!  In a mirror that is dirty, you cannot see yourself fully: do you have something on your face? Are those stray eyebrow hairs? You can't tell!
Perhaps your mirror even breaks, distorting that image even more.

But from someone looking at you across the room, they see you clearly: through their eyes, you are seen as beautifully-crafted, unique, crystal-clear image.



"Whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come." (2 Cor 5:17)
In God, all things are made new.  The moment you offer all of that dirt and grime and sin up to God, you know that you can be made new and cleansed!

The fact is, Jesus died once for all.  From the outside looking in, God sees us how we are: he sees the goodness in our hearts, the mistakes we have made, and our desire for recompense.  He sees our good deeds, the times we have made Him proud.
When we sin, it does not distort the image that God sees of us, but the image we see of ourselves.
In the mirror, we see a being crafted in the image of God.  The dust on the mirror distorts it.

It's not that we are bad, dirty, or unclean; for we know that we are good, clean, and holy from Jesus' sacrifice.  But rather, our sinful actions have blurred that image of God within us; they must be acknowledged and washed away to allow our true selves -- God's children -- shine through.

Thus, we know that the moment we feel sorry for our sin, we acknowledge the smudges.  When we try to do better and pray for forgiveness, we begin to rub them away.  Finally, when we receive Sanctifying Grace in Reconciliation, our mirror is completely repaired and cleaned.  We can clearly see God within ourselves, and we know that we have been made a new creation in Christ!


When others see our sin, it is as if we stand before a window -- I am on one side, you on the other.  You see a distorted image of me, for my side of the window is not clean.  When I take a step forward and wipe away the grime, you see me more clearly.  Perhaps it takes time to properly wash away the grime, and maybe you need to wipe the dirt from your own side - the dirt of rumors and harsh judgements - in order for us to see each other properly.


Just know this:
Hope is never lost -- it's never too late; whether you are fifteen, twenty, forty-five, sixty, or ninety-two, you are young and can be made new.  You as a being, as a soul, are true - God sees who you are.  Your actions do not define you or your worth, but they prevent both you and others from properly seeing the True you, that is, God within you.

Take courage! You can have a new slate, and you can start over. You just have to get to work; grab a chisel, a rag, some Windex.  Then, grab a window washer to help!

Your Bible, repentance, your Faith...
I don't know if Jesus ever washed a window,
But I do know that He can cleanse your soul.

"Roll Away Your Stone" - Mumford & Son's