Masquerade! Paper faces on parade

Masquerade! Hide your face so the world will never find you

Masquerade! Every face a different shade

Masquerade! Look around, there's another mask behind you

If you're familiar with the musical, "Phantom of the Opera", you might remember this song from the beloved play. The song takes place in a ballroom, where couples dance together and hide behind masks. We've all seen movies where they have the "masquerade" scene, (most likely seen in the Cinderella movies played by Hillary Duff and Selena Gomez).

If you haven't been to a masquerade ball yourself, it's quite fun. Except for the most important part, the mask was too itchy for me. And being someone who wears glasses and never wears contacts, it wasn't quite as fun as I was imagining it would be. I kept having to choose if I wanted to wear my mask and mess with it the whole time I was wearing it, or take it off and feel like an outsider as I wore my glasses instead.

The representation of messing with the masquerade mask and the itchiness is similar to how we find ourselves in real life, not at the ball, but our life we live day-to-day. We wake up in the morning and put on the face we want people to see -- the masquerade mask -- and go about our day.

Masquerade, itself, means mas·quer·adeˌmaskəˈrād/ noun 1. a false show or pretense. verb 1. pretend to be someone one is not.

When we wear the mask that we want people to see, we are giving people a false show, a pretense, a lie. We pretend to be someone who we aren't. Even the lyrics in the song, "Masquerade" speak to this truth. The words, "Hide your face so the world will never find you ". If you hide the real you, the world will never know who you really are. Society tells us to be who you really are and to be different, but when we are not what society says is the "norm", we are immediately chastised for it.

There is only one person who knows the real you. Jesus. Jesus knows your deepest sorrows and he knows your greatest joys. He has been there through every tear that ran down your cheek, he has been there through every giggle that turned into you laughing so hard you can't stop. He's has been there through it all. He's comforted you in your worst and celebrated in your best. He knows what is under the mask, and he adores it. Honestly, He couldn't love you more if you tried. He couldn't love you less if you tried. He already loves you just as you are.