We were only a couple months into a pandemic when I took this selfie as a reminder of what I was beginning to feel like A year has come and gone and we’re still wearing facial coverings in spite of the fact that we’ve been vaccinated. I for one have great difficulty wearing a mask because of breathing issues, but I do so because I don’t like the looks I get when I don’t. A new form of bullying, I think.

When we’re on social media, you want to put our best foot forward, so we post pictures that show us with family members or doing something requiring talent in art, music or any performing arts. We surround ourselves with beautiful settings – amazing meals – places we’ve visited and our Facebook face tells the world that we are pretty much perfect. The truth is, it’s just another form of masking what’s really going on in our lives.

We still get depressed. We fret about paying the bills on time. We worry about our health, our aging bodies and basically everything. A year of hiding out has made us into introverts. Our only pleasures come from looking at that social media and wishing we were in someone else’s shoes. Guess what? They’re looking at you too.

God has removed the mask. He’s taken away all of our flaws and foibles. He knows us – the real deep down us and He still loves us. He doesn’t need to see what we think we are, because He knows everything about us. That could be frightening to some. No one wants all their sins exposed to the world. We all have those secrets which we feel should be hidden, but they are not hidden from the One who loves us the most. While we were still dead in our sins, He sent His Son as the perfect ransom for our souls. We had nothing to offer Him that would be suitable. A doctored up selfie wasn’t going to cut it with the Creator.

Why do we feel it’s so important to put on our best exterior, when our interior is falling part? Some might think of it as a form of narcissism. Some base their own lives on what someone else’s looks like. We want the world to see us at our best, but we aren’t always so. Maybe some of the masks aren’t the ones we wear on our faces for protection from a virus. Those are the ones we use to shield who we really are. We aren’t Pinterest perfect. We aren’t flawlessly Facebook favorable. We’re really all the same on the inside and God chose to love us in spite of that.