Fool’s Gold

In a post I wrote, I mentioned how I liked musicals. When I first saw The Phantom of the Opera, I was surprised. It is the story of a girl who started small and, through her voice, became famous and noticeable to the Phantom, who lived in an opera house. The Phantom stayed hidden due to his facial deformity. His actions towards people are forceful and angry, but because he had only known hurt and judgment from the world around him. At least, that is my perspective of the character, and learning some of those feelings, I can imagine how he longed for relationship and community but didn’t know how to have it. Especially without Jesus, but the show isn’t Christian by any means! In one of the scenes, there is a masquerade party, and everyone is wearing masks as part of the occasion. The purpose of the masks is to fool or disguise others from your true identity.

I saw the picture of this gold mask and thought it looked beautiful with the gold and gem details. But the black background caught my eye, which made it look shiny and interesting. This image showed me two things. The gold is beautiful, but it’s supposed to fool me from what is underneath and hide what is real. The enemy masquerades and tries to lure us with what we think is precious gold with what is actually fool’s gold. How many times in the Bible do we see satan tempt people with promises of good things, and it ends in tragedy and disappointment? It was not just the disappointment of not receiving what was promised but also the fact that we turned away from who is good and faithful. I’m so thankful that even when we turn away to follow something that feels more real and tangible, our Father in Heaven still pursues us and loves us even when we fall for fake identities.

When our gaze is fixated on our selfish desires, we lose sight of what is truly rich. The richness of the world is nothing. The appeal of acceptance should never be our end goal. I struggled with this as a teenager and followed this masked “identified,” interpreted as a perfect image, because I desired to know what it felt like to be “normal” or accepted like what I presumed everyone else was. This was the masqueraded lie I believed had good intentions for me, but in the end, when I looked in its face, all I saw was the black emptiness it couldn’t hide in its eyes.

To turn away from what seemed to always be in my face, I had to look within instead of what was visually pleasing and physically tangible. Jesus knows me better than any masked person and made me who I am, calls me by name, and has spoken my identity and destiny before I even drew breath. He does not hide His face behind a mask; He shows it in its fullness and brightness and has light in His eyes. The perfect image is living like Christ. We are made in His image, so if you were born in a functioning body or if you have a disability, it makes you no more or less in the image of God.

God is perfect, yes?
And yet, Jesus returned three days later with the scars in his hands, feet, and side.

Stop masquerading and fooling people with what you want them to see. Stop following a masquerading, lying, and scheming enemy that will tempt you with what looks like goldish value and information because he can produce nothing that will benefit your life. Do not become the fool that desires perishable wealth.

Take off your mask.
Seek Him, and your wealth will be more than gold.