REVEALING SELF

There is an allegory that reads something like this:

A man was complaining of his neighbors. “I never saw such a wretched set of people,” he said, “as there are in this village. They are mean, greedy of gain & careless. They are forever speaking evil of one another.”

“Is it really so?” asked the angel who was walking with him.

“It is indeed,” said the man. “Why, only look at this fellow coming toward us. I know his face though I cannot tell his name. See his little, sharp, cruel eyes darting here & there. The very droop of his shoulders is mean and he slinks along instead of walking.”

“It is clever of you to see all this,” said the angel, “but there is one thing which you do not perceive.”

“What is that?” asked the man.

“Why, that is a looking-glass we are approaching.”

- (moreillustrations.com)

Js 1:23-24 (GNT): “ If you listen to the word, but do not put it into practice you are like people who look in a mirror and see themselves as they are. They take a good look at themselves and then go away and at once forget what they look like.”

“The man who gazes upon and contemplates day by day the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, and who has caught the glow of the reality that the Lord is not a theory but an indwelling power and force in his life, is as a mirror reflecting the glory of the Lord.” -  Alan Redpath.