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Mirror Mirror On the WallÉ
February 2004
“Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” Disney made this question famous in the movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarves . The original wording of the question from the Grimm Fairytale was, “Looking-glass upon the wall, who is fairest of us all?” And for a time the looking glass would answer, “You are fairest of them all”Ñthat is until Snow-White turned seven and as beautiful as day. And because the mirror only spoke the truth when asked, it then answered, “Queen, you are full fair; ‘tis true, but Snow-white fairer is than you.”
In Harry Potter’s first school year at Hogwarts, he stumbled across “a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet.” As he looked at his own reflection, he saw a woman standing behind him. But she was not present in the room. He reached out and felt the air behind himÑand that’s all he felt. Harry didn’t know it at the time, but the woman in the mirror was his deceased motherÑwho had been murdered protecting him from evil when he was an infant. The mirror had a name: The Mirror of Erised. Erised, is “desire” spelled in reverse. The mirror, like the one in Snow-White told the truth. Harry desperately wanted to know more about his mother. The mirror showed him what he desired to see.
Mirrors are like that. They tell the truthÑabout us. That can be useful, but not many appreciate it. They would rather have a mirror tell them everything looks grand when it really isn’t.James, in the New Testament urges his readers to look into a mirror. This mirror, like the others, tells the truth. He urges us all to look into God’s word much the same way we would look into a mirror. He also urges us not to delude ourselves by being mere hearers of the word and not doers: “Éfor if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was” (Jas 1:22-24).
Mirrors tell the truth. What does the mirror tell you?
Steven Lloyd