All we were ever meant to be was a reflection. If I learn to do this well, then when people look at me they will see His reflection instead. I was reminded vividly of this the other night as I looked out at the lake. We had a weekend away for our anniversary and so had a rare opportunity to enjoy some scenic wonders far from the urban jungle. The place we stayed had huge windows overlooking a beautiful lake so I would spend time each evening looking out across the water and talking with my Father.
The first night I spent time watching the reflections as I looked across the lake. The many cottages and homes miles away on the other side, sent speckles of light dancing out across the water. Each light, though small in size, created a spectacular reflection that far overpowered its initial glow. These reflections reached all the way across a large expansive lake causing their light to be multiplied many times over. I tried to calculate without success, how high was the multiplication factor. If you were skipping a rock you could count, but this light skipping time after time seemed like it would never stop as long as there was something to reflect it. I spent some time enjoying the beautiful picture but marveling at the power of reflection.
As evening approached the next day I was anticipating another time of lake watching. The scene was however starkly different. When I walked to the windows the absence of the reflections was almost startling. Not one reflection of light was anywhere to be seen on the panorama in front of me. I couldn’t believe it after seeing the scene the night before. I then realized that there was more wind than the previous day. As the waves were whipped up by the wind they lost all of their ability to reflect light. The lake couldn’t help it. A law of nature was at work and there would be no reflections bouncing across the lake tonight.
While the water in the lake couldn’t chose how to respond to the wind, I realized that when the wind blows where I live that I do have a choice. There is a peace available to me that is beyond natural law and understanding, and it was designed specifically to work well in a storm. In fact, while peace when there is no storm is a very good thing, it is not necessarily beyond understanding. God’s peace was always meant for the storm. The calm before the storm is nothing compared to the calm in the storm. This kind of calm requires looking at things differently. It requires you to look straight past the problem and look at Him. It is a sensible response when we see the situation like He does – when we reflect what we see in His eyes.
There is always a choice of what to respond to. If what I see in His face is different than what I see in the storm, then they will not incite the same response. It is impossible to react to the wind and respond to the light in His face simultaneously. We were created to reflect Him, not the storm. When the waves start kicking up, we lose our ability to reflect His light across the dark water. There must be calm for reflection to happen.
Unlike the water in the lake, I can look away from the wind and chose another focus. I can actually practice the peace and stability that comes from setting my eyes on the Rock. Paul said that this rock was the anchor for our soul(Heb 6:19). It is what holds us in place when our mind and emotions (soul) are going crazy. I can chose to look into His eyes and respond to what I see there instead of being tossed around by everything else. That sounds good to me without even talking about what it does for reflection. First we get the perfect peace that comes from setting our gaze on Him (Is 26:3)– then we get the added bonus of being in a position to reflect His light.
Peace and reflection go together.
If I was meant to be a reflection then I guess I must have
been created for peace, no matter what the wind does.
