Mirror Mirror on the Wall

Water is nature’s first mirror. It reflects mountains, trees and sky

to create some of creation's most evocative art. 


Water photo-copies the reality around it and mirrors it back to us with fresh perspective and insight.

In Aesop’s fable, a dog with a bone sees his reflection in the river; greedy for the bone in that other dog’s mouth, the dog barks – and his bone drops into the river. It's not just a story about dumb dogs, it’s a cautionary tale about human greed.

The classics also tell about Narcissus who fell in love with his own image in water and became incapable of loving anyone else – a warning about the paralysis of vanity and self-absorption.

The Book of Proverbs quotes an astute proverb about water reflection:

Just as water reflects the face,
so one human heart reflects another.

Proverbs 25:19 NRSV

There are two ways to interpret this proverb – relationally and as a solitary act. Two proverbs earlier we read

Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens the wits of another.

Proverbs 25:17

Two friends or foes reflect back to each other the wisdom or folly or implications of their ideas and sharpen each other. That’s the relational mirror.

But the water-reflection proverb may also be about searching your own heart and identifying the mystery, the motives, the hopes and fears that lie beneath. Another proverb says "The purposes of the heart are deep waters, but an understanding person draws them out." Proverbs 20:5

That requires a level of honesty and objectivity that eludes most of us. A host of forces around us and within us conspire to avoid this truth-telling, but as Socrates said, the unexamined life is hardly worth living.

I wonder why we resist taking time to listen to our hearts.
I wonder if we fear the still small voice in which God whispers truth.
I wonder if the double-reflection of a moon-lit lake reveals a secret we ought to ponder. What do you think?