People wear some pretty strange masks. Especially now that swine flu has been going around. I’ve seen masks painted up with hearts and flowers, vampire teeth, kissy lips, buckteeth, the works. Anything to be different and still be a shield of protection.
Yesterday I saw a guy on a motorbike wearing a black mask with white skeletal teeth and jaw painted on it. It made him look like something out of a horror film. It shocked me at first when he saw me staring and he waved at me. I jumped, and then realized all I could see were his eyes, he might actually be a friendly guy and smiling underneath for all I knew. It reminded me that no matter how scary or different he looked or acted, he was just human underneath.
It made me start thinking about masks. We all seem to wear a few. Which ones do I wear? What do they protect me from? How many people do I let see the real me, raw and real? How many people do I meet every day that look perfectly normal on the outside, yet are hiding great pain, anger, rejection, or feelings of shame and worthlessness?
How can we develop an atmosphere of trust, where people feel free to let down their guard in our presence and feel welcomed and loved, just as they are? I think it begins by allowing God to really see us, just as we are, not hiding behind anything and receiving what he says about who we are. And then maybe we can gingerly begin to lift our own mask.
