A few years ago, I was injured in a fall in my own house.  The fall left scars, which I notice every time I look in the mirror.  But no one else seems to notice.  For two and a half years, not a single person – family, friend or stranger – has pointed out what seems so obvious to me.  So am I really that unimportant?  Or are my physical flaws that unimportant?  I’d like to believe it’s the latter.

What do we see when we look in the mirror?  For most of us, our lives follow an arc.  When we’re young, we don’t really care; our clothes don’t match, our teeth (if we have them) are funny, our hair is all over the place.  But then we hit middle school and grow hyper-sensitive.  We see only our perceived flaws, especially if someone else points them out.  Hopefully we reach a point of equilibrium in mid-life until it starts again.  Parts of us start to look not-right again, although they are different parts; our hair thins, our stomachs grow, and not with babies.  But then we reach a certain point when there are too many things wrong with us, and we just don’t care anymore.  This is called “growing old gracefully.”

What do you see when you look at your loved one?  If you overlook their flaws (or perhaps don’t see them at all), you probably have a pretty good relationship.  What does God see when he looks at you?  Do you think he focuses on your flaws, or your beauty?  Can we look at each other the way God looks at us?

Kaitlyn will be in the Dominican Republic this week (lucky Kaitlyn!).  I’ve given her the following advice: enjoy your vacation!  This seems obvious, but here are some of the things I’ve heard at the beach:  “The sand is too hot.  The waves are too rough.  It’s too humid.  It’s too windy.  I can’t get good cellphone service.  The hot dogs cost too much.  There’s too many people.  Why do I have to swim between the flags?  What’s with these flies?  I don’t like sand crabs.  I’m getting out of the water, I think I saw a fish.”  People can ruin any experience depending on where they look.

Here are some statistics from this week’s news:
Over 328.1 million Americans did not get COVID this week.
An even greater amount of Americans did not get shot this week.
This is because over 800,000 police officers protected and served.
In global news, over 650,000 nuns did not gamble away a million dollars.
And nearly 150 nations decided not to go to war.

Our outlook and mood depend where we choose to focus our attention.  But there will always be some people who like to complain, like to protest, and like to argue.  They always look for the dot – the thing that’s wrong or just imperfect.  These are the people you want to stand next to at a buffet.  They will say, “the hot dogs look a little overcooked” or “the icing on that cupcake looks funny” or “who would put an olive on a deviled egg?”  More food for us!

A couple well-known proverbs relate to this phenomenon.  The first is “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”  (People used to check the horse’s teeth to see if it was healthy.) The whole earth is the horse that God has given to us, and we’re meant to enjoy our lives.  The second is, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater,” which is a little troubling because how often did this actually have to happen before it became a saying?  Also wouldn’t you notice?

Society is always telling us to “Look over here!” or “Look over there!” at something that is distracting at best and damaging at worst.  “Look at these murders!  Look at these controversies!  Look at these scary statistics!”  Sometimes, however, they cancel each other out, which is when I like to look at the humor of it all.  This happened earlier this week as one region declared that no one could wear masks or they would be fined.  And you know who complained?  The Klan!  Somehow a mask rule did what no anti-racism law had been able to do for 200 years!

And sometimes a news story is meant to make us feel angry or inadequate.  But hen I heard that I paid more taxes last year than Jeff Bezos, I thought, “I must be the richest man on earth!”

Then there are things that are just plain distracting, what I would call “useless information,” and which I now share with you.  Have you ever wondered what a spicy crawfish potato chip would taste like?  Or a jerk chicken potato chip?  Wonder no more, Lays has you covered this season!

So we could go down the rabbit hole of distracting information, jumping from one video or news story to the next, growing increasingly more agitated or listless; or we could focus on what God wants us to focus on, the good and true and pure and right, the excellent and praiseworthy.  There are plenty of good stories around, and if we run out of good stories, there are more in the Bible, and if we run out of Bible, there are plenty in nature, and if we run out of nature, there are plenty in prayer.

When we fix our eyes on the good things in life that God has provided, we begin to see even more.  When we count our blessings instead of our problems, we feel differently about life.  When we look at the excellent and praiseworthy parts of each other, instead of our flaws, our relationships are renewed.  When we look at the best parts of the world, from nations cooperating to children singing songs of peace, we start to feel better about each other and the world as a whole.

And if at the end, we have a little generosity left, a little mercy, a little love, we might use it on ourselves, to look in the mirror and see the creature that God has created out of love, and whom God loves so dearly today.  Amen.