Thresholds

Girl in the Mirror

Norman Rockwell brought this image into view in 1954. It once appeared on the cover of Saturday Evening Post Magazine. I want us to take a moment to look at this picture and see if we can discover the mysteries in the picture. We often times overlook the things in our lives or the things of a photo because we glaze over things. Besides it is just a picture right?

This is a young girl going through a threshold of her life. Perhaps, she has ventured into a dark room, perhaps the attic, where she looks into a mirror to discover if she will ever be like the star in the magazine that she holds. Some things are on the floor around the girl, lipstick, a brush, a hand mirror. What could all this have to do with the picture? You see this is what makes the picture interesting, the more you look at the picture the more you discover. God is the same way, the more we investigate, the more we find out.

The young girl is most likely at a threshold in her life. The doll fits the story but it also brings us to the thought, why is the doll lying on the floor in a heap? The young girl is most likely at an age where she is trying to figure out what growing up is all about. Too young to be an adult, and too old to feel that playing dolls is appropriate as well. I watch my granddaughters as they begin to go through life and it always amazes me how they are attracted to dolls and seem to take on the motherhood role at a very young age.

Jesus was very good at noticing things about people. In the story of the widow’s mite. (NRSV)

42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44 For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” Why did Jesus see something special in the poor woman? Perhaps, because he took time to look. The others were caught up in the long robes and put on a show for others to think highly of them. No, Jesus finds something in this woman because he knows what she has. How can he know this? Because he takes time to notice the little things, just like the picture we were looking at, at first glance one might not notice the lipstick on the floor, or the beautiful picture in the magazine in her lap. Did we, at first glance, think about the meaning to be found in the painting?

This girl is somehow like us, or we are like her, we are in the midst of change. She is perhaps somewhere between her last doll and her first date, wondering how life will turn out for her. Will she one day resemble that picture of a star? Will she ever grow up and if she goes forward into being an adult what will she have to leave behind? Perhaps that doll on the floor.

The widow in the story from Mark is also in a threshold. She is so poor that she cannot afford food to eat, yet she feels the tug from god to give, so she gives knowing that it was all she had for food. Most of us will never be brought to this point in our lives, and yet can we stop for a moment to see her? Or will we be caught up in the parade of long robes?

We are all like this painting in that we are going through thresholds. If you stop and look around you might see young children beginning school. Will they find their way much like we have? If we are going to experience life with the world around us, we have to take time to notice what the world around us is going through. The young person going off to college that leaves behind old friends and is building new relationships. The young couple considering marriage, scared to go forward not knowing what tomorrow will bring. The family moving from an old home to a new home goes through a threshold and we need to be available to see the change that takes place. How will the children adjust?