When
Moses gathered the children of Israel together to begin work on the tabernacle
(Ex. 35–39), he called on Bezalel, a gifted artisan, to help make the
furnishings. We’re told that certain women were asked to give their precious
bronze mirrors to make the bronze basin he was constructing (38:8). They gave
them up to help prepare a place where God’s presence would reside.
Give
up our mirrors? For most of us, that would be hard to do. That’s not something
we’re asked to do, but it makes me think about how too much scrutiny and
self-examination can be disconcerting. It can make us think too much about
ourselves and not enough about others.
When
we can forget about our own faces quickly and remember that God loves us as we
are—in all our imperfections—then we can begin to “look out not only for [our]
own interests, but also for the interests of others” (Phil. 2:4).
Augustine
said that we get lost in loving ourselves but found in loving others. Put
another way, the secret of happiness is not getting our face right but giving
our hearts away, giving our lives away, giving our selves away, in love.
A heart that is focused on others will not be consumed with self. (ODB)
