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What Isn't Healed is Handed Down
by John Bishop, Director of Spiritual Formation, based on this week's MS/HS chapel
There was a sculpture showcased at Art Basel in 2007 called Firebird by Niki de Saint Phalle. Today, it stands outside the Bechtler Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. The piece is made of thousands of broken mirror fragments arranged to form a bird perched on a stand. Locals affectionately call it the “Disco Chicken.”
When you step close to the sculpture, something unsettling happens. You can see yourself, but only in pieces. Your reflection is fractured and distorted, reducing it to a vague outline rather than a clear image.
It’s a strange experience, and when I stood beside it a few years ago, I had a sobering thought: this is often how life works. Sin fractures our ability to see ourselves clearly. We assume we’re seeing the truth, but what we’re really seeing is a distorted reflection shaped by blind spots we barely notice. Those blind spots don’t appear out of nowhere. Family background, cultural norms, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and countless other influences quietly shape what feels “normal” to us. But what feels normal to one group can feel deeply wrong to another.
In some families or friend groups, for example, it may be common to speak about certain groups of people with less respect or compassion. Words are used casually to demean or diminish others simply because they are different.
That behavior may be normalized, but it is not righteous. Normality is shaped by culture; righteousness is shaped by the character of God.
Jesus leaves no ambiguity here. He calls His followers to love even their enemies and to pray for those who oppose them. Scripture makes the test plain: love for God is revealed by love for others. A life transformed by Christ cannot remain indifferent to the dignity of people made in His image.
So, the question becomes personal. When you look at your reflection, whose image are you mirroring? Are you simply echoing the patterns around you, or are you intentionally shaping your life after Christ? Are you throwing off what entangles you and running the race marked out for you with perseverance?
Some of us have inherited ways of thinking or acting that do not honor God. The invitation of the gospel is not denial, but renewal. When sin goes unexamined, it rarely stops with us—it shapes those who come after us. What isn’t healed is often handed down.
But in Christ, distorted reflections can be restored. What has been broken can be made whole.
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There was a sculpture showcased at Art Basel in 2007 called Firebird by Niki de Saint Phalle. Today, it stands outside the Bechtler Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. The piece is made of thousands of broken mirror fragments arranged to form a bird perched on a stand. Locals affectionately call it the “Disco Chicken.”
When you step close to the sculpture, something unsettling happens. You can see yourself, but only in pieces. Your reflection is fractured and distorted, reducing it to a vague outline rather than a clear image.
It’s a strange experience, and when I stood beside it a few years ago, I had a sobering thought: this is often how life works. Sin fractures our ability to see ourselves clearly. We assume we’re seeing the truth, but what we’re really seeing is a distorted reflection shaped by blind spots we barely notice. Those blind spots don’t appear out of nowhere. Family background, cultural norms, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and countless other influences quietly shape what feels “normal” to us. But what feels normal to one group can feel deeply wrong to another.
In some families or friend groups, for example, it may be common to speak about certain groups of people with less respect or compassion. Words are used casually to demean or diminish others simply because they are different.
That behavior may be normalized, but it is not righteous. Normality is shaped by culture; righteousness is shaped by the character of God.
Jesus leaves no ambiguity here. He calls His followers to love even their enemies and to pray for those who oppose them. Scripture makes the test plain: love for God is revealed by love for others. A life transformed by Christ cannot remain indifferent to the dignity of people made in His image.
So, the question becomes personal. When you look at your reflection, whose image are you mirroring? Are you simply echoing the patterns around you, or are you intentionally shaping your life after Christ? Are you throwing off what entangles you and running the race marked out for you with perseverance?
Some of us have inherited ways of thinking or acting that do not honor God. The invitation of the gospel is not denial, but renewal. When sin goes unexamined, it rarely stops with us—it shapes those who come after us. What isn’t healed is often handed down.
But in Christ, distorted reflections can be restored. What has been broken can be made whole.
Westminster Christian School, located in Palmetto Bay, Florida, is a private, college-preparatory school for children from preschool through twelfth grade.