Off With The Mask
By Kathy Sweeny
Monday, April 3, 2017
O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in-behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? Psalm 139:1-7 NIV
I bet everyone knows what a mask is. We’ve seen them on TV or at our front door on Halloween night. Chances are you’ve worn a real mask at some point in your life, when you dressed up for Halloween or perhaps performed in a school play. Sometimes it’s fun to put on a mask to scare others or to make them laugh; or to just look different for some reason.
I would venture to say that we have ALL worn a different kind of mask at some time. A mask that is not real but imaginary. One which hides the real us, just as a Halloween mask or a party mask hides our face.
Do you know what I’m talking about? That imaginary mask that you put on when you go out in public, when you want people to see the person who you wish you were or the person you want to be; the mask that you wear to hide the person who you really are.
If you are a parent, you might know what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the mask that goes on right after you’ve been yelling at your kids and then the phone rings and you answer it in your sweet, life is wonderful kind of voice.
Or the mask that you put on just after you drive into the church parking lot after having screamed at the kids all the way to church. Or perhaps if you have grown up going to church you remember that one from your childhood.
These masks, real or imaginary may fool those around us, but God knows us. He created us. He knows our inmost being. He discerns our going out and our lying down, before a word is on our tongues, He knows it completely. I don’t know about you, but this knowledge frees me.
It sets me free from trying so hard to prove myself. With God, I don’t have to prove my innocence. He already knows the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. With God, I don’t have to be anyone special because He loves me just the way that I am.
I know better than anyone else that I don’t deserve that kind of love, but God gives it to me anyway. It’s called GRACE.
Spend some time this morning in honest reflection of the different masks that you wear. Journal them and maybe even draw a picture. Be honest, no one will see it and God already knows.
Heavenly Father, precious and wonderful God, we love You. Thank You Lord that we can be ourselves with You, because You already know us, inside and out. Thank You that we don’t have to and can’t hide anything from You. Thank You for freeing us from the exhausting chore of hiding who we really are from others. Thank You for loving us for who we really are. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
© 2017 by Kathy Sweeny. All rights reserved.
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Originally published Monday, 03 April 2017.
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