The Light Sees Beneath The Mask

The alarm went off, and before your feet even touched the floor, the knot was already there. Tight.

Familiar. You don't know why it's there today.

You don't know what it's afraid of. But you are already getting ready to face a world that expects you to be fine.

You put on the mask. You smooth your hair.

You practice the smile that says 'I'm okay' because the day demands it. But the light sees the tremor in your hands.

It sees the performance. Jesus walked through crowds that wanted things from him, and sometimes he slipped away to a solitary place while it was still dark.

He knew the weight of the mask before the sun was up. He knows the knot in your stomach.

The light does not ask you to take the mask off for the world. It only asks you to set it down for a moment.

Just long enough to remember that you are not the performance. You are the light underneath it.

The knot may stay for now. But it does not get to tell you who you are.