Encouragement

Laid Bare

by olive Ngoe
02/14/11
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LAID BARE
The other day I got my results for an assessment test I had sat for in school. I was less than pleased with the performance and as usual I wanted to bundle the piece of paper into the tiniest ball possible and throw it in the farthest corner of my bag. As I began to do that I suddenly stopped and asked myself what good that would do. For you see, if I hid it from view then it is likely that if the questions were repeated in the final exam then I would land in the same trouble and would be none the wiser for it. However if I accepted the fact that there were obviously some topics I had not got a good grasp of, then I would be able to seek help and definitely do better in the main exam. What I had begun to do was only a normal but damaging reaction to avoid momentary embarrassment but not deal with the real problem.
It reminded me of my relationship with my Lord God. Sometimes I treat him that way. As if he is not the God who was, who is and who is to come; I treat him as if there are some things that I can hide from him. It brings to mind the picture of a child who has been hurt in play and tries to hide it when he comes home. And so the little one successfully maneuvers the kitchen and the sitting room without drawing the attention of his mother to the little wound. When he reaches his own room he chuckles at his own cleverness but is soon sniffing in pain at the dull throb of the wound. However the child is not willing to tell the mother for the fear of the sharp and momentary pain of an antiseptic passing over the open cut. The agony is that even now the child is in pain that could be more dangerous, if the wound festers. And soon enough the mother will notice that there is something is wrong and the wound will have to be dealt with, pain and all.
That is the same way I sometimes deal with the Lord. I act as if his eyes will not be able to reach the deepest recesses of my heart or see the farthest corner of my closet where I have hidden all that I would not want another human eye to see. And yet this is such a futile task, for the one who made me knows everything about me; he knows my end from the beginning. There is nothing that is hidden from him. And while I attempt to hide, all the while the wound of my sin or grief or unbelief grows deeper and hurts only me. It would be far easier to present it before the Lord Jesus so that he may perform his healing work on me. The momentary pain and embarrassment that might come from laying myself bare before him is nothing compared to the fact of the eternal pain I would endure if I did not let him in.
Our very own Lord Jesus is a wonderful example. When faced with the prospect of the cross, he came face to face with his humanity. He asked for the Father to take away the cup of suffering from before him, he sweat drops of blood and he laid his heart bare before God the father. And then they who sought to arrest him came and once again he was arrested and mishandled. Jesus bore s few hours of excruciating pain and inhuman torture to free us from sin. He laid himself bare for the whole world on the cross at calvary.