These are days when I avoid more than a fleeting, perfunctory glance in glass.

Checking for unruly hair, smudges and smears while avoiding noting the passage of years.

It makes me sad and discouraged at times to mark the passing of time and all that’s left undone as another year closes.

So this is a season of seeking to see myself more in the mirror of Christ and to lean toward His glorious light.

Aiming during Advent to focus more sharply on His image rather than my own.

I want to be awed and amazed once more as I become immersed in His grace and glory-story.

I want to reflect more deeply on the light of His coming and the gift of His presence.

With these thoughts in mind, I share my best poetic five-minute-friday offering with you.

Reflection

I gaze into glass and it reflects back

a clear-eyed image of me

with uncanny accuracy

My present and past lay revealed

yet I feel it doesn’t really see

deep inside the whole of my soul

It reflects back the way years, pain and tears

have etched their stain hard on my visage

and how I’ve been beaten down by care,

wearing signs of sickness on the surface

So I turn instead to the much-thumbed

book beside my bed, and begin

to read as it continues reading me

I see myself with startling clarity

It reveals who I am in the process of

becoming when reflected in its depths

Here I am mirrored in Christ

shining forth His life

And it reflects all I can be as I

live out its truth, surrender

my time, my years, my life

Now I turn gentler toward

the mirror of glass

knowing its image is transitory,

passing, nothing that lasts

Because the only thing

that fully reflects my

passage on earth

is my faith in Christ

through the ever exalting

state of new birth

©JoyLenton2015

Joining with fellow word wranglers at Kate Motaung’s site today as we wrestle to pin them to a page in 5 minutes flat. This week’s prompt is ‘reflect’.

It’s a lovely, encouraging, supportive community who meet there every Friday. Come join us? You’re very welcome to take part or just drop by here to read the words being shared.