Summary
If you look at your left eye in a mirror, and then at your right, you won’t see your eyes move.
But if your neighbor looks you in the face and watches you do the same, they will see your eyes move. And they can tell you what they see—they are a living mirror.
You can’t see your own eyes move.
The mirror doesn’t lie, but your brain does . . . all the time.
It turns out that we cannot see “now.”
What we think is now is an illusion constructed by the brain.
The past is our memory of now, and the future is conjecture, so we each live in a reality of our own making… and modern physics makes it even weirder.
Some physicists say nothing is real unless it is observed by a conscious observer.
I cannot observe me, for I am the one doing the observing.
That means that I do not even exist unless someone is observing me . . . now.
This is my point: the “me” that I observe in a mirror is not who I am.
To know who I am, someone must observe me, and tell me who I am.
And then . . . I need to trust their word.
A small child easily trusts.
A physicist or theologian will trust their own perception; a child will trust that of his or her neighbor—hopefully, their mom or dad.
Moms and dads protect small children precisely for this reason.
A small child might trust a talking snake, just as quickly as the Word of God.
A small child doesn’t have knowledge of Good and evil; they don’t know who to trust.
We protect children, but we also want them to grow up. We want them to encounter evil and learn to choose the Good. We want them to live a story. We want them to leave home, come back, and say, ‘Mom and Dad, I trust you; you’re good . . . let’s kill the fatted calf and have a party.’”
To know who I am, someone must observe me and tell me who I am.
To trust what they say, I need to know the story—their story and my story.
In Revelation 21 and 22, John sees the New Jerusalem.
He sees his own name on a foundation stone—a living stone.
In the city “they will see His face (the face of God and the Lamb) and they will worship.”
The New Jerusalem is a living mirror . . . and a story.
There is a dead mirror, like the kind you might hold in your hand.
And there is a living mirror, like the eyes of your neighbor.
As we learned last time, the Evil Queen had a mirror—she wanted to know what was good so she could take the good and make herself good; she wanted to put the heart of the good in a box.
Snow White also had a mirror—she had a living mirror. She wanted the good . . . to find her and love her. Her mirror was a wishing well that turned into the eyes of her prince.
There are two mirrors and there are two ways of knowing.
The empirical method is how we come to know about things that we can test, judge, and comprehend. It’s often called science.
If you want to know about a tree, you cut it down and count its rings. If you want to know about a woman, you dissect her and analyze her liver. If you want to know about God, you nail him to a tree or put him in a box. Then you know about God, but you can no longer know God, for you just crucified God on a tree in a garden.
The empirical method is great for learning about things that you have already judged as less than you, but terrible for knowing, and being known by, things greater than you and your ability to judge—like a wife or your Creator.
There are two ways of knowing: empiricism and revelation.
To receive a revelation is to worship, and to worship is to receive a revelation.
When we worship, we observe the One who always observes us now—God is Now.
When we worship, we wake up from the illusion of our own sovereignty—the Evil Queen is an illusion and Snow White is who I am.
When we worship, we know because we are known; we comprehend because we have been comprehended; we conquer because we have been conquered . . . by Love.
The New Jerusalem is a living mirror and the story of Love.
John sees the tree in the middle of the garden.
John sees a lamb standing on the Ark that is a coffin, a box, and a throne.
John sees the river of Life that flows from the throne and fills the earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Where John once saw the Great Harlot, he now sees the Bride of Christ and the story of Love.
John is tempted to idolize the Revelation and the revealing angel says, “Worship God!”
Perhaps we worship the Revelation, to hide from the One it reveals and Who is speaking.
If we would stop and look into His eyes, we might hear the judgement from the throne:
“Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. It is finished.”
John is told that the time is at hand and Jesus says, “Surely I am coming soon.”
Perhaps He is coming all the time.
He came at Easter. He came at Pentecost. He comes in the last and least of these.
He is the Way, Truth, Life, Goodness, and Love that you encounter every day in the people all around you.
He’s coming to you all the time, so you wouldn’t run and hide from Him at the end of time, but would joyfully surrender to Him for all eternity.
He’s not a thief; He is your husband. He is our Helper, for whom we are made and being made.
He wants you to say, “Come Lord Jesus!” . . . and mean it.
This is not the revelation of secret esoteric knowledge; this is the “Revelation of Jesus.”
And the Revelation of Jesus is also the Revelation of who I am . . . and who we are.
If you don’t think you are beautiful, you’re looking in the wrong mirror.
“Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is at hand.” Worship God.