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 differences
that tend to define and divide 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 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 based on who
he was, not what he looked like. And 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 actually saw colors and clouds, but by comparing them to things already
familiar, she gained a real sense of those unknown things.
OUR FATHER
initiates a similar strategy in opening 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 those 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 all of 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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