As a teenager I wore many masks. I wore one to school. I wore one to church. I had special masks for special events. I never left my house without wearing one of my “masks.”

One day a man came to me. He was very tall and spoke to me very gently. He told me he had come to help me stop wearing all these masks.

I said to the very tall man, “Who sent you ?”

The very tall man said “I have been sent to you by God to help you remove these masks.”

I replied, “Why doesn’t God do that Himself if HE wants me to remove the masks?”

He knelt down beside me.

“I don’t know”, he said softly. “I’m just following my orders.”

“What if I don’t want you to help me with this?” I questioned.

“Well, then, I will wait until you change your mind.”, he replied.

“Why is this so important to God?” I asked him.

“Because,” said the tall man, ‘God created you WITHOUT a MASK! He LIKED the way HE MADE YOU and now He cannot see your face anymore because you always have it covered up.”

“Why does God want to see my Face?” I asked him.

“Because He loves your face. He wants you to come close to Him but your mask keeps you from being your true self with God” the man said.. “That is why He sent me…to help you understand. I will be close beside you until you can decide to remove your masks.”

I did not always see the man but I felt he was close by even when I could not see him. I went to school and to church and I continued wearing my masks.

One day I passed a store window. I saw my reflection in the windowpane and I did not like what I saw!

I realized I had not seen my real face for a long time! It had been hidden from my sight and I had almost forgotten what my real face looked like! I did not see the tall man anywhere around.

I touched the false skin with my finger. Then I poked around on it harder and harder. I no longer knew what was underneath the mask I wore!

When I got home I sat down in front of my own mirror. Slowly, I untied the mask I was wearing and it dropped to my lap. My face stared back at me from the mirror. I touched my reflection in the mirror because I did not want to touch my real face. I was not used to seeing my real face anymore!

How strange it felt to see the “real me” in the mirror!

I turned the mirror round and round, up and down.

My face stared back at me as if to say, “Where is my Mask?”

I had cried before.

Once I was sitting alone in my mother’s parked car by the side of the road and a big truck hit me from behind.

Once I fell off my horse.

But I had never cried like I did staring at my bare face in the mirror that night!

“No more masks for me” I said out loud.

I spoke to my reflection in the mirror I was holding.

“I need to know who you are once again, “ I thought in my heart.

My reflection just stared back at me like a child with cookie crumbs on her lips….like the child I was. I had only one thought: without a mask on, ANYTHING could happen!

I gathered all my masks together and went outside my house. I began to toss them into the air. As I threw them into the air I felt like pieces of myself were flying off from me!

The wind caught some of the masks.

Some of them landed in trees.

Some of them were run over by cars.

I touched my uncovered face. Slowly I looked up to the Sky.

“Well God, “ I began.
“Here I am.
I hope you can see my face.”

“When a person turns to the Lord God, the mask (veil) is stripped away.” II Cor. 3:16

Of course, the above is only a story, a fictional portrayal of a spiritual movement in a person’s life! It is a story of REPENTANCE. Repentance means to “Change”…to turn away from…to turn around. It means to be sorry for what we’ve done wrong (our sins)…and those things that have grieved God’s heart.

When we first receive Christ we come to Him and we “confess with our mouths” and “believe in our hearts” according to Romans 10:9 that Jesus is Lord. Once we have found Jesus Christ, and KNOW Him as our Lord, Savior, and King of all the Earth, forgiver of sins, this is only the Beginning.

We have a CONTINUING RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM FOREVER AND EVER WHICH ONLY GROWS STRONGER AND DEEPER AS TIME GOES ON…IF WE REMAIN FAITHFUL.

The “man” in the above story is a symbol of an Angel sent to bring conviction that leads to change. In the story it was the girl’s decision to remove the masks and when the “Angel” knew she had made that decision, his mission was accomplished. When the girl in the story got rid of her “masks”, she threw them to the wind and she felt free and at liberty.

This is symbolic of what happens to us when we come face to face with our Creator at the moment of salvation. We make a willful Decision to accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and His Holy Spirit comes into us, thus liberating us from the masks of the world system. We are then unashamed before God and are able to come into fellowship with Him, humbly, by removing our mask or “veil” of sin.

Exodus 34”33 says, “And until Moses had done speaking to the people, he put a veil over his face.” But it says when he went to speak with God he TOOK THE VEIL OFF HIS FACE. The veil which Moses wore with the people was a protection over himself that the people would not be able to see to the end of and to the fullness of the intentions of God through Moses. It was a protection for Moses’ life. God kept Moses hidden and protected from others. He kept Moses in a Secret Place of His Glory and Refuge. Moses carried upon his face the very countenance and covering of the Glory of God, the reflection of deeply intimate times spent in a continual going before the Most Holy God. Moses came face to face with God and that is what brought this glory and shining to Moses’ face.

II Corinthians 3:18 says “all of us as with unveiled face (because) we continued to behold (in the word of God) as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another (for this comes) from the Lord (who is) the Spirit.”’

It is in our CONTINUING ON….OUR PERSERVERING…IN THE CONSTANCY OF OUR TURNING OUR FACES TO JESUS that we are bathed in God’s Spirit. II Corinthians 3:17 says there is Liberty (emancipation from bondage) in this coming together with the Spirit of God.

So the KEY is to SHINE, not with our own glory (our accomplishments, successes of the world, etc. ) but to SHINE with the Glory of His Countenance! We must allow that continuing private and intimate relationship with Him to bring the GLOW of His transfiguring glory to our face!

Our “face” is what we present to the world. Everyone recognizes a face. The world is looking to find someone whose face they can look upon and who will bring them renewed Hope. It is God’s desire that we who are believers will SHINE with the glory of His Countenance and be like shining lights in the darkness of this present world.

He desires us to be representatives of HIMSELF, like Moses was. Moses’ shining face full of the Glory of God was a foreshadowing of what Jesus made possible for each of us, as we take off our “worldly masks” and enter into His Chambers and into the secret place with God.

Psalms 91:1 says “He who dwells (abides in and stays) in the place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the almighty! That Secret Place is a Hiding Place, a place of depth, realness, safety, a place where a Holy Father embraces His most needy child with loving arms and total unconditional love, forgiveness and acceptance.

This intimate place with God is a place where needs are met, a place of harbor and peace, of refreshing and healing. It is a place where fear and disease lose their power to control. It is a place where promises are birthed, where strategies are born and destinies are sealed.

We can walk through our lives KNOWING there is a God, believing that He exists, but NEVER really spending quality time in the secret place of deep intimacy with Him. There is so much more for us than we even realize as we continually make our journey to this secret place.

We can, however, choose to walk through life KNOWING HIM, the ALMIGHTY GOD, on a personal level, coming continually into His Presence through our worship and with our Thanksgiving. When we make the decision to truly know God through His Son Jesus we find a Sanctuary of Peace, a place where there are no more masks.

Prayer: Father God, we ask for your guiding light in the darkness of our souls. We ask that you would gently lead us into that secret place with You. We ask for your mercy in these difficult days and for your hearts to be softened and contented in your presence. Help us to find the security we need in your secret place and to lay our masks aside. In Jesus name, Amen.

Article is copyrighted by Sondra Stallman.
May not reprint without permission from author.