God Sees Behind the Mask!

I love this story of the believing townsfolk in this small Swiss town:

"In Basel, Switzerland each year the good protestant townspeople have a festival in which they all don masks and go through the city doing things and going placed they would never consider doing/going under normal circumstances. The mask, which veiled their identity, emboldened them to do these things. One year, the Salvation Army, concerned about the abandonment of moral standards, put up signs all over the city, which read, "God sees behind the mask."             -- Dr. Kenneth Gangel, Scofield Memorial Church, May 22, 1983."

Psalm 139 tells us several truths about God that makes us see how true it is that God sees behind the mask… It tells us that He knows us inside and out. He knows our actions and observes them. He knows our thoughts and our words we are about to speak! Not the ones that we are speaking but the ones that we are thinking about letting come out of our mouths!

He is familiar with all of our ways – This Hebrew word –sakan- means to be acquainted with or to be so well known as to be useful. In this context, it is a more intense understanding and it means to be "intimately acquainted with". God is not just familiar with us like he recognizes us in passing… He is intimately aware of the details of our ways and our thinking patterns.

Verses 7-12 describe our passion to hide from God compared to our complete inability to even sneak away from Him for a millisecond. It isn't going to happen!

This both comforts me and scares me – I am comforted because of the phrase in verse 10 – "even there your hand will guide me and your right hand will hold me fast." There is security in God intimately being aware of your life and knowing that you are in His hands at all times. It scares me because He knows my thoughts – even when I can hide behind my mask with you. He knows my words – what I want to say – even if I do not say them and He knows my heart. I know what is there but you may not because I hide behind a mask.

When I remember that God sees behind the mask, I have the comfort of knowing that He still loves me and forgives me and desires to be in a right relationship with me anyway.

This enables me to be more transparent with you and to take off the mask and learn to trust that I can be who I am, with my struggles, insecurities and problems while still knowing that I am a work in progress just like you! We should be doing this together and growing and pushing each other to conform to the image of the Savior! Join me! Take off the mask and be who God made you to be!