In this Things Above episode, James Bryan Smith explains the concept of a spiritual mirror. Smith learned about the phrase “spiritual mirror” from George Macdonald, a great Scottish writer and preacher in the 19th century. James quotes from Macdonalds book Creation in Christ to help explain the concept of the spiritual mirror.

“When we think Christ, Christ comes; when we receive his image into our spiritual mirror, he enters with it. When our hearts turn to him, that is opening the door to him, that is holding up our mirror to him; then he comes in, not by our thought only, not in our idea only, but he comes himself, and of his own will. Thus the Lord, the Spirit, becomes the soul of our souls, becomes spiritually what he always was creatively; and as our spirit informs, gives shape to our bodies, in like manner his soul informs, gives shape to our souls. In this there is nothing unnatural, nothing at conflict with our being. It is but that the deeper soul that willed and wills our souls, rises up, the infinite Life, into the self we call I and me, makes the I and me more and more his, and himself more and more ours; until at length the glory of our existence flashes upon us, we face full to the sun that enlightens what is sent forth, and know ourselves alive with an infinite life, even the life of the Father. Then indeed we are; then indeed we have life; the life of Jesus has, through light, become life in us; the glory of God in the face of Jesus, mirrored in our hearts, has made us alive; we are one with God for ever and ever” (George MacDonald, Creation in Christ)

It is as if Jesus is waiting for us, waiting for us to set our minds on him, and the moment we do, MacDonald says, Christ comes. James goes on to say that as we set aside time to—as MacDonald puts it—think Christ, the image of Christ is being imprinted in our hearts. And in so doing, we become not someone else, but we become truly who we are, truly ourselves, truly the person God designed us to be.

Christian spiritual formation means that we are being formed into Christlikeness. That is what MacDonald is describing. By setting our minds and heart on Jesus, we open the door to Him, and he enters, and his image is now reflected in the spiritual mirror in our hearts.

“And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

The glory of the Lord shines upon us like the reflection in a mirror, and as we gaze upon Jesus with the spiritual mirror in our heart, the same image of Jesus is transforming us into his image.