Mirrors of God's Glory

In the middle of all that is swirling around you – your emotions, your challenges and your doubt, and all that is taking place in the world – the sorrow, the suffering and the despair, you are reflecting the glory of God. You are mirroring the image of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. This reflection is offering to the world a glimpse of a future not imagined with natural sight and imagination.

The largest telescope in the world is the Magellan Telescope. Once completed, it will be positioned in the Chilean Andes. This will be a perfect location for the telescope offering clear skies, a dry climate, and almost no pollution from artificial light. The Magellan will be able to produce images 10X sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope. 

At the heart of the Magellan Telescope is an arrangement of 7 large mirrors. To make each mirror requires individual pieces of clear glass be positioned by hand atop a circular plate where the finished mirror will rest. Once all the glass is placed on the plate, it will be put in an oven to melt the glass forming the smooth face of the mirror. Each mirror will weigh 17 tons and span 24 feet across. 

When the melting process is complete, the mirror will need to cool for 6 months before the polishing process begins. It will take another 2-3 years of precision grinding to prepare the reflective surface of each mirror to make it ready for the telescope. Each of the mirrors will take 7 years to produce from start to finish. There is another kind of mirror that is infinitely more powerful than the Magellan and that mirror is currently in operation on Earth. 

Each follower of Christ is a mirror reflecting the glory of God to the world. We are mirrors who reflect a witness. The word “witness” in Scripture does not only mean a verbal witness of our faith. It can also mean, “to show forth”, “to display” like the reflective surface of a mirror. At the beginning of the expired old covenant, Moses came down from the mountaintop reflecting the glory of God to such a degree the people could not bear to look at his face. Consider the superior reflecting power of the new covenant we have with God in Jesus?

Your reflection of God’s glory infinitely dwarfs the most powerful technology that will ever be created by the most brilliant human innovation. Never underestimate the significance of the One who lives within in you and is reflecting His glory to the world through you. You are God’s mirror upon the Earth. Always live with that reflection in mind. It will change how you see the world.

^“So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image” (II Corinthians 3:18).