Uncovered Faces

There are moments I feel shocked that I now live in a world that I could never have imagined existing outside of a film, where masks hang on my washing line, where we hide our faces and withdraw our embraces and where too many are afraid.

How do you feel about masks? For some, they are a fashion accessory. According to the Evening Standard, one US based Chinese businessman has commissioned a $1.5 m face mask which features 3,600 black and white diamonds set in white gold. It does apparently also provide protection against Covid19.

It still wouldn’t win me over to masks. I know that they are a way to love and protect others so of course I wear a mask when needed but I hate the sense of separation, the way that a smile is obscured.

But when we come home to God, there is no separation. Over the last weeks, I have kept coming back to the description of the Father filled with compassion for his ragged, bruised and hungry son in Luke 15. Our Father is filled with compassion for us, even when our wounds are self-inflicted. He throws his arms around us - no separation.

God wants no separation, with no masks. We must turn to him with our faces uncovered, discovering that his face is uncovered because all that separates us from him removed at the Cross. He wants us to see his smile of delight, his face shining with love for us – because that is what fills us with hope – for this life and the next.

God is calling us to see beyond the immediate, with all its challenges, and to live with our eyes on the eternal – on Him. As I share in “Living for Eternity”, that doesn’t make us want to escape but gives us power to engage. We can dare risk all because absolutely nothing can separate us from the eternal love of God.