LOOKING IN THE MIRROR

Greetings in the love and mercy of Christ:

Parables are among the greatest tools used by Jesus Christ to speak about the Kingdom of God.  He used them as a two fold purpose of keeping the attention of those He spoke to and also explaining the truth of the Kingdom of Heaven to those who had the spiritual ears to hear what he was saying.  I recently read a work from Mark Twain that was much like a parable to me. " An artist painted a picture and realized that by looking at it in a mirror it was focused differently and it was soften slightly so he hung it directly across from a mirror so that people could see it in it's true beauty.  The house cat was witness to all of this and greatly admired by the forest animals for his wisdom and truthfulness.  The house cat told about the painting and the mirror, but none of the animals had ever heard of such a thing.  It drew such great attention that all kinds of animals came to inquire about this thing of such beauty.  The cat explained that the painting was a very flat thing that had on one side a beautiful picture on it, and the mirror as a hole in the wall and when you looked in it you could see even greater beauty from the painting than anything he had ever seen.

A mule was quiet interested but also very skeptical. He told the animals that he had never heard of such a beautiful thing and he simply did not believe it. After a lot of discussion and some coaxing the other animals shamed the mule into going to check this amazing thing out for himself , then come back and report to them what he had seen. With caution the mule did just that, and when he looked into the hole in the wall he could only see another mule starring back at him...the mule seemed handsome for a mule and fairly friendly, but still a mule altogether...and so his report was that what the cat had said was a lie.  The cat upon checking the hole in the wall out again came back reporting the same beautiful painting that he had seen before...more beautiful than anything he had ever seen before. The cat described it so well and in such detail that the animals thought he could not have possibly made it up and so they began to send other animals brave enough to see for themselves.  They chose a Tiger, and elephant and several other animals to try to see and each one came back saying they could see nothing except their own kind in the hole as they stood close to the hole and pea red in to look for the beauty of the painting.

The trick the cat said is that you have to make yourself smaller so you are not in the way of seeing the beauty that is really there with you.

Friends I believe that is a very true statement for this time of year and actually always within life.  John said of Jesus " I must decrease so that He might increase".  Some how we need to get out of the way when we look at life, and allow God to be seen through our lives.  As we decrease He can increase to the point that everyone will be able to see the beauty of God through the hole in our wall.  We are getting ready for a breakout year in Jesus!  I am so very proud of all of you...May you richly bless God through your life in Him.

THE UNWORTHY SERVANT