I’m Thankful Mirrors!

One of the greatest reasons to live a life of THANKSGIVING is the gift of Seeing the glory of God.  Now this doesn’t mean we have to be like Moses and spend 40 days on a mountain fasting and praying to get a glimpse of the backside of the glory of God.  We live in days where His glory is evident all around if we just take time to look.

The other week I was sitting in the back of The Gospel Outreach church in a township of Masiphumelele. The 4 hour worship service was great and you could truly feel the presence of God. But as I looked over to my left I saw His shining glory mirrored in full display. She was walking down the isle bringing a young child to be seated at the front of the church. There was no halo over her head nor beams of light in her stoic face, just a powerful glory that lead me to thanksgiving for what He has done in and through her life.

She had her first child at a young age,  later would marry a man with 3 kids and have 1 of their own. When their child was 5 her husband unexpectedly past away leaving her a mother of 4 to provide for the family. All she really had was her relationship with God to bring her through this wilderness. She prayed, worshiped, read her Bible, and worked hard to bring her family through.

Patty and I would not have survived our work at Oceans Retreat Center without her. When Oceans bought the campus she came with it along with her daughter Sunny. She cooked, cleaned, helped with repairs, got up in the middle of the night standing in sewage to help us battle the flooding. She was a rock in the middle of all the storms we faced. We we spent hours with her crying out to God for miracles in our personal lives and life in South Africa.

Not long ago she faced another crisis with her oldest daughter’s family and was called by the Lord to take two of her young grandsons to live with her. She felt she needed to move back to Massi into a home she owned and raise these boys through the power of the Christ who lives in her. The other day dinner was severed at her house and what a blessing to see the grandsons become young men who are seeking to walk with Christ just like their older aunt Sunny who I predict will be president of South Africa someday.

That Sunday watching her use her gifts at church I saw God’s glory. A faithful servant, who faced impossible odds, yet who clung to her faith in a God who loved her and would bring her through.  Just like it says in 1 Cor. 3:18, she mirrors the glory of God;

“We can all draw close to Him with the veil removed from our faces. And with no veil we all become like mirrors who brightly reflect the glory of the Lord Jesus, we are being transfigured into His very image as we move from one brighter level of glory to another. And this glorious transfiguration comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

I’m thankful to the Oceans Board and all all who support Oceans Ministries for funding Thobeka to be a missionary mirror of the Father’s glory. As she mirrors His love to her family, to the church where she is the key leader, and to a community that is in desperate need to see the glory of Jesus.

This thanksgiving look around you and think about those who mirror Christ glory to you. Give thanks and ask God to fill you with His Spirit to also be a mirror in a world that needs to see Jesus.