Beauty Beyond the Mirror: Identity

I stand there, starring at my phone. The tears threatening, my hands shaking as I read the message. How can she be saying this to me? I thought she knew me, I thought she accepted me. Why is this happening to me? I feel everything within me crumble to the floor at the painful words; rejected once again.

I walk down the hallway; someone shouts something my way and I don't fully understand what they're saying but I get the idea. The teasing laughter is the final blow. I feel the tightening in my stomach as a flood of emotion sweeps over me - I am worthless, I'm a reject, who I am is not good enough.

I run to the bathroom. Another mistake. Lord, will I ever get it right? Will I ever meet the expectations and standards that are placed before me? Who am I if I can't do even these things? Everyone else can do it, why can't I keep up? Why can't I handle it all?

I stand before the mirror, playing back the tapes once again that run through my head of all the voices that have defined who I am. These pimples, will they ever go away? My hair, why does it have to be so frizzy? I don't dare look at the fat rolls today - it's too much. Too painful. The weight of the labels weigh heavy on my shoulder and pierce deeply into my soul. It's too much. Too painful. Are they really true? Is this really who I am?

"You are My Daughter! You are My child!" says the voice that breaks through the thick darkness.
The tension that wages in my soul is real - stay trapped under the labels that have been placed on me, that reflect an image that seem to be real. Or hold to what God says of me.

I dare to listen to God.

Peering into the mirror again I grow bold. I look with everything I have and allow myself to believe the goodness of His message to me and the beauty of His Word. And then my perspective changes. I see the courage, the perseverance, I see the arms where many a young child can be found. I see the warrior, I see the beauty of the relationship with God, and I see the glimpse of my Father there in my face. There in my body. I see the way even my body longs for connection with God, and I've mistaken it with food or other things. "You enrapture my heart my darling," "how beautiful you are my precious Diamond!"

He rejoices over me with singing! (Zeph 3:17). His banner over me is love (Song of Solomon 2:4).

And yet the tapes run on. Today is a good day - I'm able to hear clearly the voice of my Father and hold to it over falling into despair because of the labels. And as I stand before the mirror what do I see? I see God's redemptive story unfolding. And it's beautiful - messy and sometimes chaotic but beautiful none-the-less. "You are my child!"

What courage and boldness, what peace and assurance that one statement places within my life. Go ahead stare, peek, gaze into the reflection of Christ on earth. Imperfect, yes - by a long shot. But purposeless? Worthless? Rejected? No. Stare, look again at my reflection. There I see it, I see a glimpse!

We have been made rich through the identity God has placed on us His sons and daughters. We have been given authority and His inheritance; meaning we can squash those little devils under our feet as they try to creep into our lives and discourage us and move us away from our relationship with God. Who we are is grounded in what Christ did for us. The question is, now that you've accepted His gift of salvation, do you accept His love? Do you see that your flaws, your sins, and your mistakes, your imperfections, and your lack of living up to "the standards" is no longer you because you have been given His righteousness? You being filled with Christ are beautiful because Christ is beautiful. Who the mirror says you are is not the real you because the real you cannot be found in a mirror, it is found in Christ. Your identity is in Christ, and the more you grow closer to Him the more you become like Him. And the more you become like Him the more beautiful you get. It really is the most amazing beauty secret in the world, and it's free to get, but it requires us to give up everything in order to gain all of Christ.

Maybe you need to look into the mirror today and really assess what beauty is. Because God is beautiful, beauty is an everlasting quality - never changing, always present. With that in mind look in the mirror again. Do you dare to see what God says about you? The first step is to just see, the second to accept. Remember, the mirror only reflects the shell. But with a new perspective, the mirror can reflect depth and dimensions you didn't see at first. It can reflect His redemptive story in your life. That is beautiful.