Wherever there are women there are looking-glasses, from the Sherifa with her great mirror framed in carving and gilding, to the tent of the Bedouin woman, who wears a little leather-covered disc among her many ornaments.

For all women want to see what they look like – what they look like to other people.  And they know that the mirror gives to their view what they themselves would never see – the form and the tint of their features and the drapery of their headgear.

So far the mirror goes, no further, it can only picture the outer person.  But there is another mirror that can shew thee thy inner person.  That mirror is the Holy Book.  In a mirror of glass thou canst see thy face as thy neighbour see it, but in the Word of God thou canst see thy heart as God sees it.

In a mirror of glass thou canst see thy face as thy neighbour see it, but in the Word of God thou canst see thy heart as God sees it.

Our earthly mirrors sometimes shew things that make us sad.  A woman may think her face still young and fair; but her mirror shews the wrinkles and grey hairs that have begun to come.  It tells her the truth.

So also God’s Word tells us the truth about our hearts, that is to say that they are not good as we like to think them, but bad before Him.

For instance, thou thinkest perhaps that thou canst gossip all day long, without harm.  See how that gossip appears to God.  He says, “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin.”  “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”

It may be, in thy mind are thoughts of pride, despising thy neighbour.  Look in the mirror of God:  He says, “He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth.”

It may be that thy heart harbours hatred against another, thou sayest, “I do well to be angry.”  Look once more in God’s mirror and see how this hatred looks to Him:  “He that hateth his brother is a murderer.”

Look, O my sister, in this mirror that tells thee the truth, and quickly thou wilt see that thou dost need a Saviour.

From: Heavenly Light on Daily Life – (a series of unpublished devotionals for Arab women) by Lilias Trotter