(workplace reflections)

When I was younger, I had an art project where a mirror was shattered and transformed into something new. I cannot recall if the project was school-related or personal, but I do remember the mirror shards were mesmerizing to me. The afternoon consisted of gluing and painting while the small pieces refracted sun rays, random spots of my face, vibrant colors of the wall, and textures of blankets/furniture around the room. The pieces were not revealing a clear/cohesive representation of the room I was in, they revealed just enough to make me feel as though each piece held their own reality. I imagined I could dive in like C.S. Lewis’s, The Magician’s Nephew, or Mark Lawrence’s, The Book that Wouldn’t Burn, and go to another world. When the afternoon turned to golden hour, the room was illuminated and filled with refractions of light playing all because of the broken mirror shards.

On a daily basis, I interact with people dealing with illness, chronic pain, and terminal diagnoses. These people come into the medical office I work at with their own story, and we slowly get to know one another and share life. Many share stories of brokenness and hopelessness due to their health. They come in feeling a bit like the broken mirror, random pieces scattered without any order or notion of how to be put together. What does life look like now? How do I move forward when nothing has worked? Each “broken” piece holds a unique part of how they were made. I get a small interaction with these people, yet even the smallest interactions are an exchange of pieces that make us unique. They give me a piece of their broken mirror, and I trade a piece of myself. Together, we build a mural reflecting something bigger than our individual experiences.

Each person holds a piece of the divine in their being¹, my role is to see them for who God has made them to be. When I worked in the social work field, we often used the language of a person’s dignity. No matter who is sitting in front of us, what we have in common, or our differences, each person has innate worth and dignity. It is a courageous act, at times, to look for God’s image where we would rather look away and choose pride; pride to value our experience first, rather than serving another first. People surprise me on a regular basis with their humor, the way they listen and respond, or even revealing God’s gentleness through silence. No matter the interaction, good or bad, each person has something within their being which glorifies God. My job can feel challenging during the difficult interactions but incredibly rewarding because of the creative opportunities to witness God’s glory shining through His children.

During the process of putting together the smashed mirror, when I was younger, I used tweezers most of the time to avoid cutting my fingers. However, a couple shards did imbed into the tender pads of my fingers. Oh my, how those sharp cuts stung! Interacting with people can feel a bit like this at times. While we try to be careful and respectful, there are times when the shard someone shares with us cuts and harms our tender side. This piece is no less important to the mural we are building, even if it stings. Suffering is a part of every life here in the broken world. Even brokenness can remind us to look for the glory of God in unrealized places.

Throughout our lifetime, as we collect shards of people’s mirrors, we are beginning to see the face of God with greater clarity. When we choose to see pieces of the divine in each person, we come to realize that God is the one being reflected. “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”² One day, when we meet God face to face, everything will be in perfect clarity. For now, we see God by the way we love others and by the way they love us.

We are all “works in progress”, never to be completed in this lifetime. The interchange with those we meet is essential to the flourishing of life. Obviously, there will be loved ones who give/take more pieces and have higher representation in our mural of refracted divinity. Others may only give us a sliver and could even be forgotten in the grand overall picture, however each piece is important to reflect the light and glory that God shines through His people. I look forward to the golden hour of my life, as time on this earth fades and my reunion with God is at hand. My prayer is the refractions of light from each interaction illuminates the spaces I walked and reminds people of God’s goodness and His glory in a life lived for Him.

1. Ecclesiastes 3:11, Genesis 1:27, Genesis 9:6, 2 Corinthians 3:18, and more ↩︎
2. 1 Corinthians 13:12 ↩︎