The poet Yeats wrote,
If I make the lashes dark
And the eyes more bright
And the lips more scarlet,
Or ask if all be right
From mirror after mirror
No vanity’s displayed:
I’m looking for the face I had
Before the world was made.
(“Before the World Was Made” from the poem “A Woman Young and Old”)
Yes, that’s it. When we take a second glance in the mirror, when you pause to look again at a photograph, we are looking for a glory you know you were meant to have, if only because you know you long to have it. You remember faintly that you were once more than what you have become. Your story didn’t start with sin, and thank God, it does not end with sin. It ends with glory restored: “Those he justified, he also glorified” (Rom. 8:30). And “in the meantime,” you have been transformed, and you are being transformed. You’ve been given a new heart. Now God is restoring your glory. He is bringing you fully alive. Because the glory of God is you fully alive.
“Well, then, if this is all true, why don’t I see it?” Precisely. Exactly. Now we are reaching my point. The fact that you do not see your good heart and your glory is only proof of how effective the assault has been. We don’t see ourselves clearly.
(Waking the Dead , 78–79)
So What?
To live in this we have to leave everything behind! How can you have a beautiful flower bed if weeds are growing in it or if you are constantly having to spend all of your time weeding instead of planting flowers and making sure they are growing to their full potential! Look at your life, find the weeds, and rip them out WITH THEIR ROOTS- get rid of them and then the flowers can be planted and a full heart can be found. Roots look like the cause that created bitterness, doubt, fear, the times you were hurt in your life. Give them to God and allow God to heal your heart. That is how you rip out those roots and allow your good heart and your glory to shine through!
