By Gail Casteen

The true mirror is His Word!

CBN.com - "For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things He planned for us long ago." - Ephesians 2:10

Masterpiece? If I am going to line up with what God has to say about me, I suppose I am going to have to see a masterpiece when I look in the mirror.

It is awfully hard to imagine that He could possibly use me for the good things that He planned a long time ago. However, Psalm 139 tells me that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. He reports in verses 15 and 16, "When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be" (NIV).

As I stand looking in the mirror, I marvel that He could have planned anything good for me when I am so weary and disheveled. How could He possibly assign good things to me when I’ve fallen flat on my face so many times?

Then, in the middle of my wondering, I realize something. My history does not define me, nor does my present…those mirrors are dark and clouded. The true mirror is His Word! The image I see is completely different -- and much clearer.

Jesus, the Living Word of God is holding up the mirror that reflects His masterpiece. He says it well when He reads from the scroll in the temple:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:18-19,21b, NIV).


Isaiah 61 gives a fairly complete comparison between our personal image and the reflection in His mirror:

What we saw …
What He sees…

We saw captives.
He sees freedom.

We were in darkness.
He transferred us to life in the light.

We felt rejection.
He establishes us in the favor of the Lord.

We were mourning.
He has comforted us with the oil of joy.

We were suffering in lack.
He pours out His provision.

We wore ashes and shame.
He has crowned us with beauty.

We were donned in the sackcloth of despair.
He has robed us with the garment of praise.

We were tossed about and unstable.
He calls us oaks of righteousness. He planted us.

We were in ruins.
He has restored us. He calls us priests of the Lord and says we will be named ministers of our God.

In His faithfulness He rewards us and writes a covenant with us. Instead of shame we will rejoice in our inheritance and will inherit a double portion, and everlasting joy will be ours. All who see us will acknowledge that we are a people the Lord has blessed.

The next time you begin to struggle with who you are, take a long look in the Mirror of His Word. Look at it every opportunity you get, and you will begin to see the image He sees reflected there. It may take awhile, but the day will come when you will look in the mirror and agree that He has made you to be a Masterpiece.


"But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18, NIV).