How to Reflect Jesus Like a Mirror (In 3 Specific Ways)

I always wear my REFLECT necklace, even when I walk, because I need the constant reminder to lay down the parts of me quick to quiet attention instead of directing it back to God. This year’s been a slow journey of learning to reflect Jesus like a mirror rather than deflect, dismiss, or deem ingenuine encouragement and thank yous. Thus, my word of the year, REFLECT, on a handmade pendant–a gift from a giant-hearted friend. (Thanks again, Sarah Frantz!)

My word of the year, REFLECT, on a handmade pendant–a gift from a giant-hearted friend, Sarah Frantz.

This morning I walked on the treadmill in my basement while reading the scriptures designated in my reading plan for today. One verse in 1 Samuel jumped off the page:

Which of your servants, good king, is so faithful as David?

1 Sa. 22:14, The Voice

David, who we revere as tenderly close to God’s heart, is described here as faithful–an attribute intrinsic to God’s own nature. So obvious to others is the way David modeled this characteristic that it’s noted in the story. My necklace bounced gently with the rhythm of my steps as I pondered how I too can lean wholly into God’s invitation to reflect Him.

Made to Reflect Jesus

A reflection is a mirror image. It captures the slightest tilt of the head, a shift in posture, merriment in the eye, or sorrow squeezing eyebrows together. It’s not static, but fluid, transcribing in real-time every stray hair and sigh, every question etched in a facial expression. The fullness of emotion, the details of dress, the way we slump or stand tall–a mirror will tell it truthful.

If we’re to mirror Jesus back to a hurting world, we’ve got to fall in sync with His breath, His heartbeat, His tears and tender expressions. We’ve got to memorize the features of His face, the veins in His nail-scarred hands, and the inflections of His voice.

The commission to reflect Jesus is first an invitation to deeply know Him. Not about Him, but Him. Like any relationship, knowing is gradually grown, built on clocked hours, trust, and vulnerability.

If you need a resource to nurture more, honest, and deeper conversations with Jesus, I can’t say enough good things about Jennifer Dukes Lee’s guided journal, Stuff I’d Only Tell God. The subtitle describes it perfectly: A Guided Journal of Courageous Honesty, Obsessive Truth-Telling, and Beautifully Ruthless Self-Discovery. Here, in its welcome pages you’ll find a safe space to ask God questions you’d never dream up on your own. As you bring your honesty, you’ll find He’s honest too–about how wildly He loves you.

3 Ways We’re Made to Reflect Jesus

The more time we spend with Jesus the harder it will be to stay quiet about Him. Want unforced conversations about Jesus? First fall in love with Jesus and talking about Him in your everyday conversations will begin to feel natural. We’ll begin to emulate His rhythms and passions, His words and His ways–like a mirror.

Mirroring Him is merely the overflow of treasuring time with Him.

I love the way The Voice explains it in Ephesians 4:21:24.

If you have heard Jesus and have been taught by Him according to the truth that is in Him, then you know to take off your former way of life, your crumpled old self—that dark blot of a soul corrupted by deceitful desire and lust—to take a fresh breath and to let God renew your attitude and spirit. Then you are ready to put on your new self, modeled after the very likeness of God: truthful, righteous, and holy.

Let’s look at three ways we model “the very likeness of God.”

1–We Reflect His Mercy-Driven Heart

Mercy beats close to God’s heart, as evidenced by its mention in the Beatitudes:

How satisfied you are when you demonstrate tender mercy! For tender mercy will be demonstrated to you.

– Matthew 5:7, TPT

Mercy is love in action. Putting the practical into practice. Giving second chances. Emulating Jesus. Feeling the squeeze of God’s own tears and joining Him there. Bringing heaven to the dirt and thirst of earth.

If I’m not careful, though, I turn mercy into a list of things to do. Things that make me look compassionate and neighborly. Things I use to curate my impression, convince myself and others that I’m a “good Christian.” Outside, rather than inside, things.

Matthew 5:7 calls me to action. And it also puts a gentle finger on checklists I’ve subconsciously written:

Church attendance.

Volunteering.

Leading.

Bible reading.

Talking clean.

Never getting upset.

Always saying yes.

Sometimes we make it about the thing rather than the why. Try to change the inside by doing the outside things “right.”

Reflecting Jesus’s mercy-driven heart pulls us into action, but not out of obligation or to earn anything. It’s the overflow of our hearts breaking by the things that break His–which we learn through heart-to-hearts with Him.

2–We Reflect His Grace-Lined Goodness

Mercy takes the tangible form of kindness, but grace is space to breathe, to be both human and wholly loved by a divine God. It’s an underserved, freely-given gift: salvation, belonging, irrevocable love, always-access to God. We receive God’s grace and then pay it forward to the people in front of us.

But we often struggle to accept grace for ourselves. We let our inner critic badger and blame us. We compare and conclude we’re not enough. Meanwhile, Jesus is trying to catch our eye and tell us we can stop striving, stop trying to earn the gifts He’s already paid for in full.

Before we can extend grace to others, we’ve got to still our steps and saturate in God’s abundant grace. Need a wise, grace-filled guide? I invite you to check out my dear friend Jennifer Sakata’s newly released podcast, Living the Grace Life.

3–We Reflect His Unfailing Faithfulness

Let’s take this full circle by returning to the verse that sparked this musing: “Which of your servants, good king, is so faithful as David?” (v. 14, The Voice).

Faithfulness is counter-cultural. Broken promises, broken relationships, and broken hearts are inescapable. Yet as mirrors of Jesus, we give the people around us a taste of God’s unfailing faithfulness.

Like mercy and grace, faithfulness is overflow, not effort. We borrow God’s strength to keep promises because we’re tenderly held by the Promise-Keeper Himself. We beg for healing where trust is breached, we stand up for others when they’re crushed by unfaithfulness, and we remind ourselves and others often that God never, ever leaves us.

May I pray for us as we close?

Jesus, we fall short so many times as we practice mirroring You, yet You smile every time we look to You for help. Teach us to treasure time with You so imitating You feels effortless.

Just a friend over here in your corner,