April 8th, 2020

A blessed day to all,
Early on in our state's response to combating the Corona virus, one of our church members, whose initials are G.I.N.G.E.R., gifted us with some face masks she had made. They had different designs and each was uniquely beautiful. Sadly, my wife grabbed the baseball themed one right away and said "ok, you can pick now". I have already drawn compliments from others when wearing my mask outside the house in those rare instances when I have ventured out.

This came to mind because this morning on the news, there was a human interest story of how folks are starting to use masks as a means of showing their personality and sense of style.  This is communicated by the design of the mask or the choice of materials used. It has become a way to say something of ourselves. For instance, when I wore my mask, I got two general comments, one was "nice mask", and the other was "Seahawk fan, huh?". The design on my mask communicated that through this whole mess, I remained a fan of our local NFL team.

As I thought of how masks are becoming a means of communicating something of ourselves, a text from the Gospel of John came to mind. In John 13:15 we read Jesus' words: ["By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."]  Just as the current trend of wearing facemasks in public can be used to say something about ourselves, so too, our actions can communicate something about our faith. These actions include how we speak to others, how we treat others, and our general demeanor when we venture out in public.

There are two kinds of stories coming to the forefront more and more. One shows some people acting in selfish, boorish, rude, and self-absorbed ways. Others are stories of people acting with kindness, consideration, selflessness, and love of their fellow man.

May our actions, like our facemasks, show something of ourselves. May they show, "I am a disciple of Christ."
Have a wonderful witness day, Vic