Amusement Park: Haunted House, Fifth Room – Mirrors

They entered the light of the next room, much brighter than the light of the previous rooms, and immediately Amalia saw why. Mirrors.  Mirrors of all sizes, shapes, colors, and styles were reflecting and re-reflecting light beams across the room until the room seemed to glow.

At first Amalia enjoyed the mirrors. They were all intriguing as they each reflected the other mirrors around them. As she looked into each one, it seemed as there was a depth in them well beyond what she was familiar with in the mirrors at her home. It almost seemed that each mirror held its own little world.

As she passed the first mirror, she looked at her reflection and gasped. She knew she had been eating more than usual lately, but had she really put on that much weight? Well, as soon as she got home, she was going to do something about that. Maybe walking a few extra miles each day would help.

She looked away, not liking what she saw, only to find herself looking into another mirror. What? Confused, she gazed at the skinny girl in the mirror. She wasn’t overweight? That was good, but being so underweight wasn’t much better. She looked all boney and awkward. Maybe she should eat more. But what if the first mirror was right, and this mirror was wrong, somehow?

Confused, she shifted her gaze to the next mirror. In this one, she was neither too skinny nor too fat. But she was green. Green? How was that even possible?

Before she could think of a reason, she caught a glimpse of herself in yet another mirror. Wait! She was beautiful! Golden tan body, long silky black hair, perfectly proportioned body parts. She smiled, enjoying this view. Yet at the same time, she knew there was something wrong with it. Her hair was brown, not black. And it was curly, not straight. Sighing, she let that image slide by.

The next mirror showed her that her head was too big for her body. She looked grotesque. She shrunk away from this image, willing it to disappear. But that only made it worse.

Confusion filled her as she continued to look at her image in one mirror after another. So many images – each totally different from the others – filled her eyes and mind until she forgot what she really looked like. Was she really as wild looking as the brown mirror showed, or as sickly as she looked in this blue mirror? Was she as self-confident as the red mirror made her look, or as scared as she appeared in the silver mirror?

 

Confusion turned to anxiety as Amalia lost all sense of who she was as well as where she was. There was nothing in her life but mirrors that she no longer wanted to look into, full of images she didn’t want to deal with. So she closed her eyes and withdrew within herself.

At first she didn’t notice the gentle squeeze on her hand. Then it came again, a little stronger, bringing with it a memory. She wasn’t alone. Jesus was with her.

Keeping her eyes closed, she asked, “Jesus, how can You still be here with me? I’m so messed up.”

“Of course I’m still here. I promised you I would be, and I always keep My promises.”

“I don’t even know who I am anymore.”

“I’ve told you who you are.”

“But that’s not what I see when I look in these mirrors.”

“Ah, I see your confusion. These mirrors show you how different people in your life see you, which affects how you see yourself.”

“They are all so different. Which one is right?”

“None of them. They are all imperfect.”

“None? Some do look kind of odd, but most look like perfectly decent mirrors. How can they not reflect the truth?”

“Because no matter how straight they look, the way each mirror’s glass was created caused different amount of bends, just like how life experiences and belief systems cause bends in how people see the things around them. Some people have straighter glass than others, but even the straightest of those have some bend to them. It’s the bend, which most people are not aware of, that distorts what is reflected back to you. When you look at yourself through their glass, your view is distorted by the amount of bend they have. There is only one mirror that has no bend.”

Amalia, eyes still closed, thought of the various images she had seen, wondering which one had been in the one straight mirror. She wanted it to be one of the beautiful ones, but there were so many more ugly ones that she felt it had to be one of those. She was afraid to ask Jesus to reveal the correct one just in case it was one of the uglier ones.

But Jesus knew what she was thinking. “I have something for you, Amalia. But you’ll have to open your eyes to use it.”

“What is it?”

“It’s My mirror. It will show you what I see when I look at you. It will show you the truth about yourself because it’s the only mirror with no bends.”

“I don’t know if I want it.” Fear of finding out that she really was ugly was stronger than her curiosity.

“It’s up to you. I can’t force you to take it, nor to look in it. When you are ready, it will be here for you.”

Amalia felt the car slow down and then stop.

“Jesus, why did we stop? I want to get out of this room.”

“Your eyes are still closed. You won’t be able to see what’s in the next room until you open them.”

“But I don’t want to look into any more mirrors.”

“There’s only one mirror you need to look into.”

After a few minutes musing over the possibility of staying in this room forever, the desire to move on with Jesus overcame her fear, and she opened her eyes. Jesus was holding a small mirror in front of her, just big enough to reflect her image without confusing it with images of the other mirrors.

What she saw took her breath away! Her image revealed a strong warrior glowing with good health and vitality. Confidence radiated from her smile, and her eyes sparkled with joy. There wasn’t a blemish on her.

Amalia, unable to take her eyes off her image, heard Jesus whisper, “Now you see what I see when I look at you.”