This week we’re starting a new series in the Book of John.

Through the Looking-Glass is a novel published in 1871 by Lewis Carroll and is a sequel to Alice’s

Adventures in Wonderland. Alice discovers that she can climb through a mirror, or looking glass, into the

world she can see beyond. In that world things work backwards from the normal world because a

reflection in a mirror is reversed. I must confess here that I personally have not read the book, but I love

the literary device of the world in a mirror being backwards.

Every day I see a clear reflection of my physical self in my bathroom mirror, and decades on I am still

surprised to see that in photos my hair is parted on the opposite side of what I see in my mirror. While

it’s only a left-right swap and it’s only my physical appearance, it is still somehow unsettling to know

that everybody else sees me exactly the opposite way I see myself in that mirror.

A truer way to observe something would be not with a mirror, but instead with a lens that will bring it

into clearer focus without reversing the image.

The Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We observed His glory, the glory as the One

and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 HCSB)

But even those who walked with Jesus physically still were not fully seeing God:

No one has ever seen God. The One and Only Son - the One who is at the Father’s side - He has

revealed Him. (John 1:18 HCSB)

Alice discovered that the world inside her mirror was backwards, and Jesus taught us that we are living

some things backwards ourselves.

The greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever

humbles himself will be exalted. (Matthew 23:11-12 HCSB)



If I want to determine whether I’m having a good hair day, a mirror will do just fine. But if I want to

observe how God sees me and loves me, I need to look at a cross.

By Mark Stuart

Mark is the husband of Laura, father of Shelby and Jacob, and father-in-law of Bailey.