October 12, 2023 Masked in the Limelight!
At the annual festive agricultural fair in Enfield, my younger four-year-old first cousin, Edith, sat on one of the largest pumpkins I had ever seen, and her picture appeared in the town newspaper, Enfield Progress. The prize pumpkin had been grown in our garden in Halifax. It was the time of year when crops were harvested and potatoes, white and sweet, were plowed up and buried in earth beds near or under the house, so we would have them for sustenance during the winter.
To this day, the smell of burning leaves in controlled fires in the evening, the crisp coolness of the air, and the brilliant colors of the fall foliage surrounding our fields, barns, and little farmhouse are among some of my most treasured memories.
“Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra-long tassels” (Mt. 23:5 NLT).
Masked in the Limelight!
The green color of the leaves during the spring and summer, as we learned in science classes, is the result of sunlight contacting chlorophyll in them and inducing the photosynthesis process. So long as there is abundant sunshine, the leaves are green. But as the long days of summer give way to the shorter days of fall, there is less sunlight and photosynthesis cannot sustain the green color.
The green fades and bright orange, gold, red, and amethyst colors appear. But those, we are told, are the true colors of the leaves! The leaves had been masked in the limelight all spring and summer. As long as they cling to the spotlight, they stay green. But when they are forced into the shadows, their real colors emerge. Now, as my Uncle FG used to say when he was teaching Sunday School, I just feel like there is a sermon in that somewhere!
If we spend all or most of our time trying to be in the spotlight, trying to get someone to notice us or see how amazing we are, rather than spending more time serving behind the scenes, in the prayer closet, the war room, we will always be green. You may put on a show and people will notice, but the real you is covered, masked in the limelight!
Six times in Matthew 23, Jesus called the pious religious leaders of that time, the Pharisees and teachers of religious law, hypocrites. Everything they did, he said, was only for show. Then in Verse 33, he went further and called them snakes and sons of vipers. They were also doing harm to the people of God. I’ll leave it there!
If we spend our time promoting others, working behind the scenes, and in our prayer (war) rooms, we may not sit on a giant pumpkin at the fair like Edith, but God will, in time, expose our brilliance to the world!