Take Off Your Sunglasses!
By: Donna Haug
July 16, 2003
Aren’t sunglasses cool? I mean, sure they are practical. They protect our eyes from harmful rays and they help us squint less so that, hopefully, we’ll get fewer wrinkles. But, all those practical things aside, sunglasses just look cool.
Well, sometimes. When I was 13 years old, my family and I were returning to Brazil as missionaries. One of the perks of missions travel is that the necessary stopovers in various countries en route can become fairly inexpensive holidays. This was very important for a family with five children and a tight budget.
To travel from Canada to Brazil usually required a stop over in the United States. This particular trip took us through New York City. So, this missionary family “did the town”! We visited the Statue of Liberty when the lovely lady’s arm was closed for repairs and we went to the top of the Empire State Building. But, what sticks out in my mind is a particular family picture we took there. I have on the most horrific, LARGE sunglasses. I must have borrowed them from an adult and I look so “touristy”. No, in this instance sunglasses were NOT cool!
The one thing I hate about sunglasses is when other people wear them and then want to talk to me! It drives me crazy to not be able to see people’s eyes. I like to know if they are smiling with their eyes. I like to know if they are even looking at me in the first place.
Sometimes we like to hide behind sunglasses. They can be useful for hiding a black eye or an eye infection. Or they can hide a wandering eye. Those sidelong glances at that “cute” guy or girl can be cleverly disguised with sunglasses if it is done right.
I wonder if sometimes we don’t try to wear sunglasses before God. We try to make ourselves look better then we are or hide our imperfections and flaws. Or maybe we try to pretend everything is alright but in reality our heart is not in it. We need to be reminded that God is not fooled by our sunglasses. He sees right through them. He knows what is genuine or fake. He knows our faults and failures. And the best part is that He still loves us! All He asks is that we be honest before Him. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I Jn. 1:9) Let’s get real before God. Let’s take off the sunglasses!
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You know, Donna, it annoys me too - when people talk to me with their sunglasses on. Good object lesson of how we put up barriers, even if ever so slight, to God's all-seeing gaze.
Good Job! I am still working on mine. I work indoors and sometimes people come and have been in the store a while and still have them on, and I'd like to tell them to take them off, but I can't. Good points, not only does God want us to be honest with Him the more we are, the more we recieve from Him as well.
