Put down the mirror.

John 1:31 quotes John the Baptizer saying, "I myself did not know Him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was the He might be revealed to Israel." (capitalization mine)

Question: "How did John's baptism reveal Jesus to Israel?" The answer lies in the kind of baptism John was doing. It is clear from the scriptures that John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. John was calling to men to turn their life around, turn away from sin and turn toward God.

It is in this turning that the revealing begins. God does not push Himself on people. He has done a wonderful thing in revealing Himself to humanity. God is so high and distinctly different from the inhabitants of the earth that there is no way for us to know Him. We live on two very different planes. The only way that we could ever hope to become aware of Him is if He were to make Himself known to us. He has done that through nature, His Word, and His presence in this world via the God-man, Jesus Christ. He continues His revealing work through His Holy Spirit presence in those that ask for His forgiveness and guiding presence.

Even though He has revealed Himself, we still can't easily find him. Is it possible that we humans get so consumed with ourselves that we don't very often look to God for anything? God has the guiding answers that we need. Some become so proud of accomplishments and then get paranoid that others will try to steal away all that has been accumulated. We can get consumed with "me." We stand in front of the mirror and get proud of what we have done, or think about how we could do more. The rich young ruler could not take his eyes off his own wealth to come to know the "owner" of it all. He may never have come to understand that he was only a manager for what God had allowed him to accumulate.

So if John's baptism could succeed in getting us to repent, i.e. turn around, turn from self, maybe, just maybe we would turn toward God with a desire to absorb truth from God. When we do that we are open to what John has to say, "Here is the Son of God!" When we come to Jesus, we will be open to His love. Our ears will be open to listen and hear His words of hope and life. If someone wants to find Jesus, they must first put down the mirror.