God Wears a Mask

John 1:14 &18 (ESV)

^“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth... No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”

The other day I had the opportunity to do the opening devotion as our Preschool staff came back to work to get ready for the new school year.  Much has changed since the last time they were together in March, right before COVID-19 shut everything down.  I started by asking all present, “How many of you like having to wear a mask?”  Not one person raised their hand.  I doubt any of us would raise our hands.  But we are all wearing them now.  Why?   In part because we are told we must.  Yet I also know that you and I are wearing these masks because we love our neighbors.  These masks, help slow down the spread of the corona virus to others.  So in love for each other… to protect each other, you and I are wearing our masks. 

Did you know God also wears a mask?  He really does and his reason for wearing that mask is the same as yours - He loves the world.  He loves you and me.  Let me explain.  In Scripture God has made this clear, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”   Yet God wants us to know Him.  How did He solve this problem?  He put on a mask.  Jesus is that mask.  “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  He hid Himself in the flesh and blood of Jesus. The life that Jesus lived doing good, healing the sick, proclaiming the kingdom of God… the sacrificial death that Jesus died to pay for our sins… the resurrection victory over death that Jesus won three days later – this is how God made Himself known.   He became one of us.  He masked His glory and power in the humble life and death of Jesus in order that you and I might know who God is and that He loves us.  “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” 

God still wears a mask.  I love the story a public-school teacher named Guy told at the youth gathering  in Denver back in 1989.  He told the story of growing up being a on outcast, without many friends, with a poor self-image, and no faith in God.  Somewhere along the line God brought a special teacher into his life.  This teacher, an active believer in Jesus, took an interest in him.  He took Guy under his wing, got him involved in putting together the school yearbook.  Eventually Guy got to know the teacher’s wife as well.  They would invite him over to their home, include him in their activities, eventually taking Guy to church with them.  Through their actions and their words, they made Jesus known to him.  As Guy put it, “they were Jesus with skin on for me.”  They made God real to him.  That teacher and his wife were the mask God wore so that Guy could see and know Him, come to believe in Him.

That’s what God continues to do through you and me.  As believers in Jesus, by the working of the Holy Spirit, you and I are now the mask that God wears.  If you wonder why you work where you work, or go to school where you go to school… if you wonder why you have the friends, co-workers and neighbors you have – God has a purpose.  Oh He most likely has many purposes for those roles and relationships, but the most important is this – God wants to use you and me, our words and deeds, to make Himself and His love in Christ known those we meet, live with, work with, meet on the plane and more.  He wants you and me to be “Jesus with skin on for other people.”  You and I are now the mask God wears so that through us, others might see Him.

Yes, God wears a mask.  He wears a mask because He loves people and wants them to know Him.  Who were the people He used in your life to make Himself known to you?  Now, He wants to do the same through you and me.  He wants to use you and me to make Himself known… to be the mask He wears because He loves your friends, your family members, co-workers and wants them all to see Him in us.  

Are You Taking Care of Yourself?

Luke 10:38–42 (ESV)

“Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

At first, it was okay.  Many saw a benefit in the COVID shut down. People were at home.  Families were spending time with each other; in a way they hadn’t been spending time.  I saw couples out walking in our neighborhood, people I had never seen before I saw dad’s out in their front yard playing catch with their kids.  Perhaps, we were all learning to appreciate the really important things in life, the things we had forgotten because life was too busy – family, our spouse, and so forth.  I really do hope we relearned the value of those things and that it sticks with us. 

Now, though I see and hear a lot of stress.  For me personally, COVID 19 has made life busier than ever.  I know I am not alone in this.  People are stressed.  Older, more at-risk folks are really tired of being stuck at home.  Families and children are understandable conflicted about sending their kids back to school – fearful of this virus.  People working from home like it – but really miss the interaction with other human beings.  Many have lost jobs.  People where I live near Houston are fearful for theirs because of what has happened to the Oil industry.  I know Pastors who are worried about what their church will look like when we at last move past this pandemic.  I read an article this week about 4 kinds of members who won’t be coming back to church.  My prayer is that the author is wrong.

Why all this stress?  Yes, it has to do with the pandemic and the economy.  Those are the big stressors.  What really concerns me in my life and in the lives of others I see around me – is how our lives are being squeezed right now.  So, so many people have had to cancel trips and vacations… have been unable to get out and do the things they normally do in order to relax, rest and re-energize.  Summer is normally a less stressful, slower time.  Not this year.  Too many of us are doing the “Martha” thing – running around, “anxious and troubled about many things.”  That’s why the title of this blog – “Are you taking care of yourself?” 

Today’s blog is a gentle reminder – that in this time of high stress and fear – it is more important than ever that you and I take care of ourselves.  It is more important than ever to “stop the Martha” in each of us and become a Mary.  She took time to sit at Jesus feet… to listen to Him… to soak up His Word and His love.  This is too important.  There is nothing more important that taking time to sit at Jesus feet. Jesus said it to Martha, “one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her…”    This is something we need every day and especially now in this anxious time – to sit at Jesus feet… to set aside time every day to sit quietly and read His word… to go for a quiet walk and talk to Him in prayer.  Such moments with Him should be the one thing on your schedule and mine that never gets deleted.

Are you taking care of yourself right now? Jesus invites you to take time every day to be a Mary and sit at His feet… That is the one thing you and I need more than anything else.  “Come unto Me,” is His invitation, “all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me and you shall find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  

The Best Hiding Place

“You are a hiding place for me…”

Psalm 32:7a

Have you ever played hide and seek with little kids?  It’s a blast.  They tend to hide out in the open.  Each time they hide they go back to the same “hiding” place.  When they are looking for you, you need not to make it too difficult for them to find you.  That’s what’s going on with the picture I am matching with this blog.  That picture of me with a box of rags dumped over my head, is from me playing hide and seek with my grandson Kellan. You can see he found me.  Even Molly found me. 

Hide and seek with little ones is fun and funny.  What’s not so funny, indeed is much more serious, is how we “play hide and seek” with God.  Our very first parents Adam and Eve started this game.  After their first sin, they tried to hide their nakedness under fig leaves.  Then when “they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”   Even King David, a man after God’s heart, played this deadly game.  After he committed adultery with Bathsheba and she became pregnant, David tried repeatedly to hide his sin.  He first tried to make it look like her husband was the father.  When that didn’t work, David arranged to have Uriah killed in battle.  That way he could take Bathsheba as his wife, people would either think the child was his, or they would assume it was Uriah’s (because Uriah would no longer be around to deny it.)  We play the game to.  You know how.  We hide our sins by denying them, by lying about them, by blaming others, by making excuses… simply by doing whatever we can to hide them. Why do we hide them?  We are ashamed.  We are afraid of the consequences, of what other people will do or say, of what people will think of us if they find out.

The problem is that our attempts to hide our sin – even if successful – don’t help.  The shame we hide simply grows and takes root in our hearts.  It eats away at us like cancer.   David describes this in Psalm 32 – “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.”  After all, even though we may be able to hide them from each other, we can’t hide our sin from ourselves.  We know what we have done or been doing.  More importantly, we can’t hide our sin from God.  He knows. He knew what Adam and Eve had done and where they were hiding.  He called them out.  He knew what David had done, and so sent the prophet Nathan to confront David.  He knows all your secret sins and mine.  You and I can never win a game of hide and seek with God.

Much better is to come out of hiding and tell Him.  Confess our sins.  Admit the truth to yourself and God.  After all, “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins…”  That’s what David discovered.  “I said, I will confess my sins and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.” 

How can God simply forgive the terrible things we have done? Quite simply He has provided a better hiding place in Jesus.  Jesus took your sins, carried them to the cross and died for you in your place. He shed His blood on the cross to cover your sins.  His blood “cleanses us” of all our sin.  Think about what happened to you in baptism.  “You were buried with Christ by baptism into death in order that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”  At baptism, your sins were buried with Christ in His tomb, never to be dug up again!  In Christ Jesus… in His death on the cross… in His empty tomb God has provided for you and me, what we can never provide for ourselves.  He has given us the one, the only sure, the best hiding place for our sin – Jesus.

God would invite you to confess your sins.  If you are having a real struggle, He would invite you to also confess them to another person you can trust – someone like a Pastor who will never tell anyone.  Why?  Because He wants you to learn what David learned.  When David finally confessed his sin, God took them.  He hid them.  That’s what David said here, “You are a hiding place for me…”  That’s what Jesus is for you too – the best hiding place ever.