Many have inquired about the origin of my story Sparky the Broken Mirror. I actually got it from the bible. Of course, I don’t mean to say that Sparky is in the bible, but that the story was inspired by the biblical story of human redemption. I wrote Sparky the Broken Mirror out of a deep longing for my grandchildren (and all children everywhere) to know their Creator. With the world becoming increasingly darker and children becoming more and more confused with their true identities, I prayed that the Lord would give me a creative way to share the good news of God’s plan for salvation. I wanted to share the rich and profound biblical truths of Creation, the fall of humanity, God’s calling, illumination, atonement, forgiveness, sanctification, and eternal glorification. I wanted to share these vital truths in a simple, beautiful story that children could comprehend and appreciate. My prayer was that these biblical truths would be communicated in such a way that many would be deeply touched. I am so grateful that from the earliest readings of the Sparky book, various people told me they were moved to tears because they saw themselves in Sparky’s story. They realized that Sparky’s story was ultimately their own story.

The tragedy that we face today as parents (and grandparents) is that the children of the world are heartbreakingly lost. They are trapped in an ongoing existential crisis in failing to understand their true identity and the real value, meaning, and purpose of life. They don’t know their origins, the purpose for which they were created, and are horrified by what the future may hold. As a result, they sadly flounder in hopelessness and despair, sometimes even tragically ending their lives in suicide. That is where the story of Sparky the Broken Mirror comes in. The book is based on an illustration I have used for years. How could I best express that we were created in the image of God and have, since the fall of humanity, become shattered by sin and rebellion against God? How could I best communicate that we could never truly fix ourselves? No amount of looking inward, new age spiritualism or self-help books can restore the shattered visage of God that is us. Just as we humans have created mirrors to reflect our images, what would a mirror, if it had consciousness and mobility to fix itself, were to be shattered? Would it look inward? Would it go to a psychotherapist? What would it do to fix itself? Would it go to other shattered mirrors for advice that were also still broken? The mirror would have no idea where to even start until it understood it was created to reflect its maker. A wise mirror would turn back to its creator and allow its maker to recreate it, so it could again rightly reflect its maker’s image and fulfill its true purpose and design.

This led me to take the mirror illustration a step further by naming him Sparky, giving him flesh and blood, and a story that reflects our own. Sparky’s story is our own story. We cannot fix ourselves or fill the deep holes in our souls. We need to come back to our Maker and allow Him to recreate us in His image. We need to understand that our true identity is to reflect our Creator. We need to understand that our purpose in life is to have fellowship with our Creator and enjoy lives that reflect His ineffable love and transcendent glory. We must first understand that God not only made us but, like Sparky, we too have had a great fall. We need to understand that, like Sparky, no matter how hard we look or how many well-intentioned people we come across, nobody can save and fix us except our amazing Creator. I wanted to show a precious picture of the priceless love of God, in that while we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us:

“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:6-8).

After Sparky realizes that neither he nor any other human being can fix him, he discovers that only His creator can save and fix him, and only at the Creator’s great cost. The king reveals himself to Sparky and his hands bleed as he puts Sparky’s shattered mass of glass back together again. So too, in order to save us, our incredible God, in His great love, condescended to us and became a man and shed His blood on the cross. Jesus, the second person of the Triune Godhead, became a man and sacrificially shed His blood for us. He died for us to pay the penalty for our sins because it was through His death and resurrection alone that we can be forgiven and saved (John 14:6).

God not only saves us when we come to Him in repentant faith, but He recreates us and restores us to His glorious image. The bible tells us that like Sparky, we behold “as in a mirror the glory of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). After coming to Christ we grow in our faith through the knowledge of God’s word and are remade into our “new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24). God’s Word declares:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

We can now rejoice in the Lord in that He will eventually make “all things new,” (Revelation 22:5), but also in the reality that He is even now fulfilling in us His divine purpose for our lives. Those of us who have come to Christ are to shine as lights (Matthew 5:14) as we reflect Jesus, “the light of the world” (John 8:12). As living mirrors of our creator, we are able to reflect the love and light of Christ in this dark world and give hope to other shattered mirrors. Jesus declared:

“The Spirit of the Lord is with me. He has anointed me to tell the Good News to the poor. He has sent me to announce forgiveness to the prisoners of sin and the restoring of sight to the blind, to forgive those who have been shattered by sin” (Luke 4:18).

We shine the Lord’s light to the lost shattered mirrors as we allow the Lord to continue to transform us, day after day by His Holy Spirit, into His glorious image:

“So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

What a wonderful God we serve. I want my children and grandchildren to be able to go to bed at night knowing where they came from and where they are going. I want them to know, to place their trust in, and to love the God who loved them so much that He sacrificed Himself to save them (John 3;16; Philippians 2:4-11). I desperately want you and your children and grandchildren to experience the blessed salvation that is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. My prayer is that each of you would choose Christ and be restored to the image of our Creator and brought into His eternal kingdom. My earnest hope and prayer is that God will use this book to encourage you, your children, and many others to know the great love and plan of our awesome God. May the Lord use us to shine like Sparky, brighter and brighter, until the day we are brought into His eternal, heavenly presence:

“The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day” (Proverbs 4:18).

Joe Schimmel