Today's object is a mirror, and a reflection (no pun intended, but hey...) on the famous 1 Corinthians 13 passage that alludes to (in KJV speak) seeing 'through a glass darkly.'

Apparently, and this was new to me, by the time Paul was writing glass mirrors were just starting to emerge - they weren't great but they were an improvement on the burnished bronze mirrors that had been in use until then. Looking into a mirror and seeing a dim reflection, a blurry likeness - a long way from the clear images we are used to today.  I quite liked his concept of the mirror 'growing up' from the polished metal to the dim lead-backed glass of the early midlde Eastern mirrors to the array of mirrors we enjoy today (he doesn't get as far as the mirror Apps on phones - maybe they didn't exists when he wrote the book) 

One phrase struck me as I read the reflection, that when we look into a mirror what we see is 'a sinner, made in the image of God, in need of redemption.' (p26).  That tension of divine image-bearing and human fallibility is one that I often find myself pondering.

Most people have a strange relationship with mirrors, or at least with their reflections - we look into a mirror to adjust our hair, do our makeup, check our teeth for stray spinach, or to decide if this item of clothing actually looks OK.  But as the pun shows, reflection is also about thinking, a call to look deeper not necessarily into the mirror itself, but into our own hearts and minds.

Of course, before I head out to church this morning, there'll be a last glance in the mirror, just to make sure I am presentable!!