I got a great birthday gift–actually it was purchased with a few monetary birthday gifts! In my bedroom now hangs a canvas print of a painting by Akiane Kramarik entitled Prince of Peace.  It is canvas, so I could have hung it with no glass, but I was afraid it might get dusty, dirtied, so I put glass in it.  There was really only one good wall to put it on, the one next to the door going into my bathroom.  (Wait for it…I’m getting somewhere, I promise!) This wall is adjacent to big bay windows that let in lots of sunshine.  There is a long stretch of the day where that beautiful sunshine glares right off of my new painting rendering it little more than a mirror.

This morning, I got out of bed, headed for the bathroom, and looked up just in time to see my reflection in that painting.  I had crazy hair.

But you know with anything that is reflecting sunlight you kind of have a choice. You can look at the image that is kind of dancing on the surface or you can focus a bit and look at the image that lies within.  I looked at that picture and saw crazy hair.  I took a step before it occurred to me that that is no mirror.

Prince of Peace is a portrait.  It is a picture of what an eight year old girl believed that Jesus looks like.  It really is stunning, it looks like a photograph it is so perfectly painted.

I looked at a picture of Christ and all I found to focus on was myself.

I see Jesus everyday.  His image stands before me in the grocery line.  His children sit beside me in restaurants.  His works catch my eye as I drive into the morning sunrise.  The old Ray Stevens song comes to mind, “He’s everywhere, He’s everywhere.”

And yet, as I stare at the portrait, all my eye sees fit to focus on is me.

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.                                            Romans 1:20

The Presence, the ‘divine nature’ of the God of the Universe, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, the Creator of your very life and soul, is ‘clearly seen.’ He’s right on the other side of the glass.  He’s in the faces of need, the distended bellies of the orphans, the hunger of the impoverished, the sadness in the eyes of the hurting kid, and even in the life of the nutty driver in front of me on the road, or the old lady taking too long to collect her change.  His face is on every surface of my life.  

How often do you see the reflection caused by the sun and miss the Son who lies beyond it?

Christ in the flesh is right within my grasp and all I see is crazy hair.  The God of my Salvation sits waiting for me in the quiet place and all I see is a daily to-do. The writer of the instruction manual of my life stands ready to dispense wisdom and all I see is a dirty kitchen, a good tv show, a newly refreshed Facebook feed, or an insurmountable obstacle.

Your Maker, your Creator, your Savior, the greatest Friend you will ever have, your perfect Physician, your Comforter, your Wise Counselor, He is as close as your bedroom wall.  Skip over the crazy hair and look at the man behind the glass.  Disregard the worldly pressure, the growing to-do list, the dog barking the loudest and turn your eyes to the beauty that stretches out before you today.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face.

And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim

In the light of His glory and grace.