Growth Hope

Unveiled Faces

I’m never been a big fan of costume parties.

The primary reason for this is that my creativity is limited as is my originality. So coming up with a costume that I’m comfortable being in, but that’s also not totally expected is a little bit of a challenge. The second reason is that I don’t like talking to people in costumes. Specifically, I don’t like talking to people when I can’t see their faces and therefore don’t know who they are. Although my students don’t really believe it, I’m an introvert by nature, so talking to strangers in and of itself is a bit of a stretch outside my comfort zone. Talking to strangers when I can’t even tell who’s behind the mask is way outside of it.

Sometimes, it can feel like our relationship with God is like a conversation at a costume party. And Scripture makes it clear that there’s a reason it feels this way. After all, our sin separates us from God. Before we are a Christian, our faces are veiled; they are covered. However, after repenting and putting our faith in Christ, that veil is lifted. I used to always think that the removal of this veil was in regards to the removal of our shame. Instead of seeing our sin, when we put our faith in Him, God sees Christ’s righteousness. Therefore, we have no reason to hesitate to approach the throne because our price was paid on the cross. And just like the veil of the temple was torn at Christ’s death, so was the barrier of our sin torn asunder. And while this is true, it is also true that having the veil lifted has another effect. Just as we see who we’ve been talking to when costume masks are removed, having our spiritual veil lifted causes us to see God for Who He is. We can experience His glory – His majesty – because we rightly recognize His holiness.

This is one of the many reasons I’m looking forward to heaven so much. After all, Scripture also teaches that here we know only in part, but there we will fully understand. We will not only completely understand the need for our Savior and the grace that He extended, but we will fully comprehend all that He surrendered in order to give it to us. We will realize that magnitude of His majesty, the cost of His compassion, and the lavishness of His love for us. We will fully appreciate what He had, and what He forsook in order to save us who were His enemies. We will see, not only the depth of our own despair, but the heights of His glory.

And as a result, we will worship.

In the meantime, until we are in His presence, our goal is to increasingly see Him as He is. And then to live the life we would live if we could see Him completely.

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Hope

The Great Exchange

A few years ago, I wrote about a trip to London and a moment that forever changed my view of Christ. Being an American, I did not grow up with the reality of royalty as a part of my everyday life. Kings and princesses were the things of fairy tales and Disney movies, and so many of the titles that we use to describe Christ weren’t as readily meaningful to me as they would be to someone who was accustomed to the presence of a monarchy. However, standing outside of Buckingham Palace and realizing that the King of the Universe had died for me, when normally it was the subjects who were sacrificed for the sake of the Ruler, it was as if a brick hit me:

The King was killed.

The One who ruled was slayed.

For me.

It’s a moment that I often come back to in my mind, and it seems that the frequency increases during the Christmas season. Perhaps it’s because I’m reminded that not only did Christ my King die for me, but He also gave up His royal throne so that I may be saved. He gave up power, for weakness; He gave up majesty for lowliness; He gave up prestige for disregard. He left a place where He would never get tired, never cry, never hungry and never be without, in order to enter a place where all that would be His in abundance. He gave up answering prayers from Heaven’s throne, to offering prayers from the dredges of Earth. And He became dependent, reliant on the care of His teenage mother when He could of had angels at His very command.

It wasn’t a fair trade –  especially if you look at it from His perspective. We often aren’t willing to give up our place in line for the sake of another who is deemed undeserving,  but He gave up everything for people that couldn’t offer Him anything of worth in return. He became a baby – with all the inconveniences of infancy – for our sake. He left the throne room to reside in a manger.

May we in turn give our lives back to Him.

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