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Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
by Michael Blunk Th.D. I am balding. Not bald, thank you, but balding. There is a difference, you know. Hair continues growing on the top of my scalp. Not nearly as much as I would wish, but not so little as give my hairbrush the old heave-ho, either. I rather expect to hear from Rogaine any day now. They'll want me as their poster boy. I would be lying if I said my thinning hair was not a concern. In truth, it bothers me. Like many balding men, I compensate for thinning hair by wearing a beard, but I would gladly shave my face twice a day for a head full of thick, bushy hair. For years I assumed my hair loss was limited to a receding hair line. I seemed to have had plenty of hair on the back, top, and sides of my scalp. The loss appeared to be confined to my frontal hair line. It could be worse, I mused. At least I didn't look like a monk with that funny bald ring atop my cranium. Or so I thought. One day I was in a bathroom with full length mirrors on all four walls. Surrounded by the wall to wall mirrors, nothing escaped my notice--including the mysterious bald circle on the back of my scalp! I was shocked! How long has that been there, I wondered? When I arrived home that evening, I went straight to my wife and asked, "Did you know I have a bald circle on the back of my scalp?" "Yes!" "Why didn't you tell me?" I asked. "I didn't want to upset you," she answered. "How long have I been like this?" Lisa replied, "You've had that bald circle on the back of your head for a pretty long time. And I warned our daughter not to mention this to you!" Isn't the dad always the last to know? Odd, but I actually found myself blaming those four bathroom mirrors for the bald spot on the back of my head. Odd, indeed, for the mirrors had not caused my hair loss; no mirror is capable growing or plucking a single strand of hair. Those bathroom mirrors only revealed the true state of my scalp. There is much debating over the posting the Ten Commandments in public places. Such arguing often creates a lot of heat but very little light. The posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools will not make our children better citizens and to think otherwise is to misunderstand the intent of God's law. The law, like a mirror, was given by God to reveal the true moral condition of man. We stand condemned before the law, "...for by the law is the knowledge of sin (Romans 3: 20)." No one has ever been justified in the sight of God by keeping the Ten Commandments because the law is simply incapable of saving lost souls (Romans 8: 3). Again, the law only reveals our poor fallen condition; the law cannot fix the problem. Thankfully, God sent us a Hero, not a rule book, and His finished work on the cross does what the law could never accomplish! We are saved by faith in the resurrected Christ Jesus our Savior and not by our own feeble and futile efforts (Ephesians 2: 8, 9). I am in favor of posting the Ten Commandments in public places for the same reason I favor mirrors hanging in public rest rooms--we do well in knowing how we truly appear. Ten Commandments On the wall Prove that we Are sinners all. Dr. Michael Blunk is a staff writer for an apologetics ministry and serves full time as a chaplain with Wayside Christian Mission. You may contact him at [email protected] Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |