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It seems no one can resist a funhouse mirror. You know, the kind that distorts your reflection. You may be smaller, taller, or wider. It may make you look like a Q-tip or a snowman/woman. Your eyes may bulge or you might have four of them. I’m talking about that kid of mirror!  

Years ago in Denver’s Eltich Gardens, there was such a mirror just outside the playhouse located on the grounds of this large (currently a Six Flags) amusement park. There admiring herself was a woman whom I immediately recognized as actress Cloris Leachman. To be polite, I asked her, “Are you Cloris Leachman?” She gave a wry smile and said, “Maybe.” And I responded, “Well, if you were, maybe I’d tell you I enjoyed your work.” We shared a laugh, then she turned, gave a wave over her shoulder, and walked away. But notice, even the famous could not resist one of those mirrors.

The thing about fun house mirrors is that they reflect to us a person whom we do not recognize. They are, at best, a caricature of ourselves. We chose our clothing, comb or brush our hair in a particular way, and go out into the world hoping to make a good impression. We cannot see ourselves so we must be doing this for others. Then along comes a funhouse mirror as if to say, “Nice try. I know better. You are more than your well-crafted image.”

Are you who you think you are? Am I? Maybe. Partly? I wonder how God sees us. Sometimes I think God’s view of us isn’t too far off that of a wavy, funhouse mirror.  I wonder if God looks at us and sees someone recognizable, but not the person whom God intended to create; certainly not fully the person whom God intended to create. Alas, God does not respond, “If you were, I would love you.” And God does not destroy our funhouse image of ourselves to create a perfect picture of us. God seems to prefer working with the warped reflection of who we really are. 

I don’t know if Jesus would have gotten a kick out of one of these mirrors. Perhaps Jesus would have gotten a kick out of any mirror as there were no such things in Jesus’ day. Mirrors, as we know them, are only about 200 years old.  Yet images distorted and real never seemed to deter Jesus. Jesus met people where they were. This is what gives me the ability to say this is how God operates. Distorted images are not a place from which God will distance God. They are places of invitation for God to come and do godly work. God can and does use both misshapen figures and misshapen characters. God is able to use even our noncommittal “maybe” as God works to turn it into becoming an “I am!”.

Working on our appearance and image is one thing. Striving to work on who we are as a child of God is quite another. Our true mirror is neither that of a funhouse nor that like we have in our homes. It is a cross. There we see who we are. There we see whose we are. There we see the hope we have to continue along the path of being a child of God. There are no maybes in the cross, only God’s emphatic embrace in Jesus Christ.