"A friend of Joseph's went to visit him after returning from a journey. 'What present have you brought me?' Joseph asked.
" 'What could I bring you,' his friend replied, 'that you don't already have?' 'But,' he added, 'because you are so beautiful, and nothing exists in all the world more beautiful than you, I have brought you a mirror, so you can know the joy at every moment of seeing your own face.'
"[Rumi comments:] Is there anything that God doesn't have already that you could give him? Is there anything that God could need that you could possibly provide? All that you are here for, and the entire meaning of the Path of Love, is to bring before God a heart bright as a mirror, so God can see His own face in it.
"Mary, the Mother of God, was God's truest mirror… We can see ourselves in her eyes and know ourselves as her children, children of light who were called out of darkness into the glorious light and freedom of the children of God. The mirror is held up before us. Come, look at your face, your true face, and sit still and know God. Know God without a veil, in Jesus, face-to-face in a glimpse, a glance, of love. Hear deep in your soul the words of the Holy One: 'Be still and know that I am God. I am your God and you are mine, All of you are mine (Ps. 46:10).
"My grandmother used to say: 'God never takes his eyes off you, dear, because you are so dear to him.' "
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