What If God ...?

11-16-2020

By Brenda Pogue

The other day, I bounced out of my car, as I have done for decades, and bounded towards the entrance of the grocery store. Halfway between my car and the store, I realized I did not have my mask. Frustrated at my absentmindedness, I turned on my heels, and retraced by steps back to my car to retrieve my face covering. I’ll be so glad when we can dispense with these masks, I thought to myself, as I positioned the mask’s elastic straps behind my ears and pinched the metal bar to conform to the bridge of my nose.

Face now covered, as I made my way into the store, I noticed the also-masked shoppers and workers inside. I realized how thankful I was for the mask, the mask that I wore, and the masks worn by others. The mask was a protector of personal health. But then I remembered that, for others, the mask was an assailant of personal freedom. How can a mask be thought of so extremely differently?

In a strange and profound way, the mask, whether we wear it or not, unveils our deepest fears. On the one hand, it represents fear of illness, and possibly, fear of death. On the other hand, it represents fear of infringement on personal rights, perhaps the death of liberty.

What if God, in God’s infinite wisdom, uses the mask to unmask our fears? What if the covering is also meant to uncover our frailties? What I believe we all want, as a society, as a country diverse and free to have our views, is to get back to our lives before masks became a part of them. The mask, then, would represent something upon which we can all agree - the hope for a better day.

Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash