My daughter, Salem, was writing a letter to a friend and I was so struck personally by the story and the parallel to all our lives, I thought I would share it.

“I was reading The Edge Chronicles: Midnight over Sanctaphrax in school, and one of the characters so reminded me of you. She’s the ship’s stone pilot, and she always wears this hood so you can’t see anything of her face. Nobody knows who she really is or what she is capable of.  One day, she gets hurt, and the captain has to take off her hood and her coat to heal her. Under that hood and concealment, she’s actually really beautiful.

That reminded me of you because you hid what you were made to be and concealed what God had made you to be.

Underneath, there was someone so incredibly_________. Let Him fill in the blank.

The reason the character wore the hood was because she didn’t live up to what people wanted her to be, and she was ashamed of who she really was. She thought she wasn’t enough. She was wrong. Even though you don’t think you’ve pleased everyone and you think you’re not enough, you come in first place in His eyes. And He sees everything the way it is. He sees His most prized creation being unmasked to bring out the Him in you. He sees someone who’s gonna do great things. He sees someone who he’s gonna change and reveal new things to.

I think God loves His job. Getting to show you (and me) new things we could never have imagined. I’m glad that mask of shame got taken off.”

Thank You, Lord that You love Your job of revealing the Real You inside the Real us. Take off our hoods of shame and “not enough”. Fill in our blanks. We are all incredible in Your sight. Amen