I saw myself in the crowd.
We were attending the Christmas concert of the Inshallah Choir ( out of the Waterloo Lutheran Seminary ) at Kitchener City Hall. The choir is made up of about 100 voices of all ages, genders and ethnicities. They sing all over the Region, and raise money for different groups. Last night, the choir was singing for Sanctuary, a medical clinic for recently arrived refugees. It is an amazing health care facility located on King Street in downtown Kitchener. It is led by Dr. Michael Stephenson. If you have not done your Christmas giving, think about donating to Sanctuary. Now back to who I saw in the crowd last evening.
I was seated in the second row, and I looked to left, and I saw my doppelganger twin. I took his picture from a variety of angles, hoping he would not notice. But, at first, I kept looking at him, to make sure that he indeed looked like me. We often do not know what we look like. He had a full beard, and I have a goatee, but his hair looked like mine. I have more gray and white hair than the man I saw at the concert.
So, when I got home, I showed the pictures ( do not worry I will not post them ) to my family, and they laughed because they thought the man really did look like me. A picture of the back of his hair, lay on his head the same way my hair does. And our hair is about the same length . It was uncanny and eerie.
I wonder if he has the same personality as me. It was like looking in the mirror, and it made me uncomfortable. Sometimes, when I am struggling whether I have done the right thing in a certain situation, I cannot look at myself in the mirror. I could not take my eyes away from this man. And then I thought, “I look better than him.”. Oh no, I have crossed the line, and begun to have a competition with this unknown man. Why did such a thought enter my mind ? I am trying to better than someone else. It is all about pride, and putting another person down. That is why I do not want to look at myself in the mirror. I might find out that I am not better than anyone else, and that I am a greater sinner than the whole world.
There is a parable told by Jesus about the same thing that I am talking about. Two guys go up to the temple. The religious guy ( like me) approaches God, and prays, “ I thank you God that I am not like other people…” ( Luke 18:11 ). And he thinks he is a good religious person, and yet he prays to God with no sense of his arrogance and hypocrisy.
Advent and Christmas offers to me the opportunity to again think that “ God is with us “ in a new way . God becoming like us as a human baby, and yet he grew up without sin. Jesus knows about my temptation to be arrogant and unloving, because Jesus of Nazareth has lived like me. As I look into the mirror on Christmas morning, may I see myself a sinner in the hands of the loving Christ Child. I do not have to compete with anyone.
All this spiritual conversation, because I saw my doppelganger twin at Kitchener City Hall.
Ponder Anew 