Day 1: Tripping Hazard

Deception, by Jeanika Manuyag

Bumping Into Tables

What does it feel like to attempt ordinary tasks during a power outage?

It’s challenging, frustrating, even unsettling! Just try crossing a dark room, even one you know like the back of your hand, and the table corners tend to jump out and snag you. Anything you left out of place is guaranteed to trip you and shake your sense of balance.

Proverbs 4:19 says: “The way of the wicked is like darkness. They do not know over what they stumble.”

What darkness springs to mind as you consider this verse? Nighttime? A basement? A cave?
What about the darkness that comes—as in this painting—when we close our eyes to the light?
What tempts you to keep your eyes closed?
Has temptation ever sucked you in so thoroughly that you could not see your way home?
What “table corners” jump into your path when walking in darkness instead of God’s light?

Take Off the Mask

This painting,Deception, draws out the jarring disconnect between the mask we wear and our true selves. The artist, Jeanika Manuyag, purposefully used soft watercolors for the facial features to contrast them with the hard acrylic outline of the mask and its bright yellow doodles. “My eyes are open,” the mask pretends; “I’m walking in the light; all is well with my spirit.”

Jeanika wants to “show the manipulation of Satan and the feelings you experience when he pulls you into a false comfort.” We can see right through that rigid plastic mask to the downcast figure trying to hide behind it.

How about you? Is there a disconnect between who you are in public and your true self?

The Night Shines Bright

The good news is that God sees right through our masks, too. Psalm 139:12 says, “but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.”

Nothing in our lives is too dark, too complicated, or too intense for God. We cannot hide from Him, and nothing (and no one) can keep us from Him. The night shines as bright as day. God’s love and grace meet us right where we are, and all we have to do is open our eyes and walk in the light of His love.

God sees the real you. He knows the burdens that tempt you to close your eyes and shut out His light. He feels the bumps and bruises that mark you from stumbling in the dark. He loves you and wants better for you!

What would it look like to take off your mask, open your eyes, and walk in the light of His love today?