Mirror Check: Looks Can Be Deceiving…

By: Gabriela Yareliz

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. (“And you have two pictures,” the queen told Mia in The Princess Diaries). Now, in a world of AI, plastic surgery, social media and everything else that can be altered and manipulated, an image often doesn’t even represent an eighth of the real story. Humans are wired for beauty and visual. We often create judgments based on appearance (we all do it), and gravitate toward what looks nice.

God calls us to worship in a way that is skin deep.

Exodus 20:4-6 (our mirror check) says: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

God doesn’t want us focused on visuals when we worship. He doesn’t want us worshipping idols or “representations” of Him. He doesn’t want us boxing Him into some sort of visual in our minds. He wants to remain who He is and how He chooses to reveal Himself.

Has someone ever told you to look for something, but you missed it? Maybe, you missed it because it didn’t look the way you thought it would.

Think about it— many in Israel and the world at the time of Jesus had a skewed expectation of what the Messiah would look/be like. Those who were more attached to the idea they had in their mind or the idea the nation had built up missed Him entirely. The lesson remains— sometimes, the way we imagine or visualize things makes us miss the real incarnation of it. We don’t want to miss Him. We want the real deal.

God feels very strongly about idolatry. If He didn’t, I don’t think we would have all of the ups and downs God’s people had with it laid out in Scripture. In fact, when Scripture describes the nations that would not receive God’s blessing, it often mentions the idol or the god the nation worshipped. God called His people to different. It was to be one God and just Him. A God not to be portrayed. We were asked to follow Him by faith and to worship Him in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24)

It’s easy to go based off of what we see. And often times in spirituality, it’s also easier to appear good or to appear a certain way than to actually be what we want to appear as. True religion, true faith in our humanity is messy. It’s not pretty in the way we would want it to be. It’s not perfect.

The whole definition of faith is conviction in that which is not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

God wants us less focused on the visual, and instead, wants the experience of worship and transformation to be rooted in truth. In who He is. And right now, He cannot be seen in the traditional sense. The heart. This is where true worship is found.

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Mirror Check Questions: Is there something I use as a visual in worship that I need to let go of? Where am I more focused on appearances and visuals rather than my heart? How can I worship with more sincerity and presence of heart? Where can I pray for more faith and belief in what I cannot see?