Reflection

So we have been away for a while.  Why?  Well MOM got a new laptop and she has been frustrating over it getting things moved, transferred and such.  I don't know what all the fuss is about, just turn it on and go.  Right?

Anyway, that has left me some time to reflect on some things.  Mainly on reflection.  In Mark's Gospel there is this cool story about a leper who was healed (Mark 1:40-45).  Jesus heals him but tells him to say nothing.  But this guy just could not help himself, he just could help but sing of what had happened.

When the leper encountered the divine in Jesus, he could not help but “bounce back” that light, that love, that energy. The cleansed leper became a reflection of Christ’s transforming, healing wholeness. He reflected God’s power and glory with his cleansed skin and his clear voice.

But what does it mean today to be a “reflection” of the divine? What does it mean to be an echo, a likeness of Christ?

Like the first century leper, I think it means giving up some control, letting the personal experience of a Christ-encounter take hold and take you away. Once you add leavening to a mixture of flour, water, and sugar, things are going to happen. You cannot tell the infused dough not to rise. Once we experience the power and presence of Jesus, we cannot help but be altered. We are changed. We are charged. We are challenged.

On a recent walk MOM and I came across a broken mirror.  MOM picked up a piece or two and I was fascinated by the fact that she could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine ‑‑ in deep holes and crevices and dark places. It became a game for both of us.  For me to chase the light and for MOM to get light into the most inaccessible places she could find.

But you know we are not the light or the source of light. But light ‑‑ truth, understanding, knowledge ‑‑ is there, and it will only shine in many dark places if we reflect it.

We are a fragment of a mirror, both people and pups alike, whose whole design and shape we do not know. Nevertheless, with what you have you can reflect light into the dark places of this world ‑‑ into the black places in the hearts of others.   Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I think life is about. This is the meaning of life.

Blessings,

Goose