TRUTH UNMASKED
In 1985, Cher starred in a movie
called “Mask.” I
remember this film so well since it was completed in the year of my mother’s
death, and because it is one of my all-time favorites due to its sensitive
portrayal of transcending the differences that tend to define and limit us. Cher played the biker mother of Roy “Rocky”
Dennis, a teenager who struggled with a severe facial deformity commonly known
as “lionitis” due to its
disfiguring cranial enlargement. Rocky
had an outward appearance that was shocking and off-putting to most people, but
he was a gentle and genteel soul, more so than most we will ever encounter.
Because of his inherent kindness and
empathy, Rocky was recruited as a volunteer in a summer camp for blind youth. I suppose the underlying rationale was that
the campers could not see his face, so they would likely judge him on the basis
of who he actually was, not what he looked like. That’s exactly what happened.
During that summer, Rocky developed
a romantic relationship with one of the teenage girls. Having been blind since birth, she had no way
of understanding what Rocky was ‘seeing’ when he spoke of commonplace things
like colors or clouds. But Rocky was
determined to communicate clearly and share those visual experiences with
her. He came up with a brilliant idea on
how he might do it.
One day, he led his girlfriend into
the kitchen and over to the refrigerator. He took out a cold rock he had placed there
earlier and deposited it into her hands. “That’s BLUE!” Rocky exclaimed excitedly. Then he led her over to the oven and
retrieved a rock that had been slightly heated. As he placed it gently in her hands, she
commented on how warm the rock felt to her. “That’s RED!” Rocky shouted out. Then he pulled out a bunch of cotton balls
and placed them in her hands. “That’s what CLOUDS are like!” Rocky
explained. Both were thrilled to realize
that this was the very first time the blind girl could truly ‘see’ colors and
clouds.
Of course she never saw colors and
clouds as they actually are, but by comparing them to things already familiar
to her, she was able to gain a real sense of those unknown things.
OUR FATHER initiates a similar
strategy in opening up our spiritual awareness and understanding. As mortal beings, we could never fully comprehend
transcendent truths like eternity, or Trinity, or divine atonement, or any
number of theological truths. But the LIVING Word lovingly breaks down these
challenging concepts for us – into bitesize nuggets we can chew on, swallow and
digest. The parables of Jesus Christ are
one primary example. Jesus wisely begins
where we are, from a foundation of knowledge and settings with which we are fully
familiar, and thereby paints crystal-clear pictures of our covenant connections
to His grace, mercy and love.
What Rocky did for his blind friend
is only a practical reenactment of what Christ has already done for us. The One who is “the way, the truth, and the
life” continually unmasks truth and reveals it so freely, clearly, powerfully
and lovingly to us. (John 14:6)
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