OK, I admit it; I have been mesmerized by the news of Michael Jackson’s passing and his funeral.

I was a fan way back in the Jackson Five days, and still remember their Saturday morning cartoon.  Together with the Osmonds, they were my idols.  As Michael grew up and became a superstar, my musical taste changed and I really did not follow him any longer, and yet, his iconic stardom was not to be missed.  More recently though, I was again captured by the news reports of his less than virtuous exploits, lifestyle and accusations.

But more than anything, even before his untimely death, I have felt a deep sadness for Michael.  Such a troubled man with that incredible talent, all he really seemed to want was the very thing that he appeared never to experience:  the joy of knowing his truest self as something of value and worthy of love. The effect of that deep seated need and of never having it fulfilled, mingled with the power and prestige to try anything to do so, became the man that was no longer the cute boy of the Jackson 5ive cartoon, but rather one that looked so different from the rest of us that we feared he may be us … if we could be him.

You see, Michael was on the same road that we all find ourselves on, asking who the man in the mirror really is, hoping that he (or she) is more than we see.

Now, here’s the good news:  We are!  We are more than we see!  Paul writes; Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us and eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor 4:16-18, NIV).

The answer to Michael’s life, the answer to our lives, is that we are much more than we see, much more than we perceive.  What we see (that man in the mirror) is just a temporary expression, largely the product of the life we have walked and the stories we have lived.  Yet, there is something truer of us, something deeper to us, something from before this life infected us and something that will live on with us for an eternity. 

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. (1 Cor 13:12, NAS.

If there is anything that Michael has taught us, it is this: that before success, before talent, before fame, we must learn to see that man in the mirror for who he really is, not just what his reflection suggests he is. 

To the King,

David