How Do You Act When No One Can See

I don’t know about you, but when I was a child, I wanted to have the power of invisibility. I might have watched too many cartoons in which you could become invisible by putting on a cloak, but the idea was intriguing. Dreaming of all the things I could do if I were invisible became a pastime, and even thinking about those dreams makes me smile.

I would imagine my mom’s confusion when invisible Tania walked into a room and moved items around. Nothing would ever be where she left it. Or, maybe I would open the refrigerator and take out the ice cream for a midday snack. She couldn’t tell me I would ruin my dinner if she couldn’t see me.

Playing tricks on my sister was high on my “invisible to-do” list. She was a thorn in my side when I was young, and since I was the older sister, I had to be nice to the baby. Well…invisible Tania would have gotten payback for all the times she embarrassed me, which was pretty often!

Sneaking candy and sweets to eat, pestering my family, and walking into rooms to listen in on private conversations were things I would do if I was invisible. But I can’t remember ever wanting to do “nice” things if no one could see me.

Invisible, Tania could have done chores like making the beds or doing the dishes without anyone knowing how they got done. But where would the fun have been in that??? Mom wouldn’t have known it was me, so she wouldn’t have told me I had done a good job. If I was going to do chores, I wanted my work to be acknowledged.

Isn’t that how most of us are, even as adults? We want to be invisible and keep all our sneaky and naughty deeds in the dark, but we want any good deeds to be out in the open for everyone to see. But that isn’t what Jesus wants us to do.

Matthew 6:1-4 NIV

¹“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

² “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ³ But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Jesus tells us that our Heavenly Father sees what we do in private, even if others don’t. He also sees what we do in the open and why. He doesn’t want us to announce at the top of our lungs that we gave to the poor in order to get a pat on the back. In my opinion, He isn’t saying you can’t do good deeds when someone is around. I think He is saying not to do a good deed in order to get glory.

Doing good deeds in front of someone can be encouraging. One of my favorite commercials was about good deeds being witnessed by someone who, in turn, did a good deed for someone else. Those good deeds were done from the heart, not in order to boast about it on social media.

So, invisible Tania needs to stop sneaking ice cream from the refrigerator and, instead, make donations to the poor. While she won’t get an “atta girl” here on earth, she might get a ‘Well done, good and faithful servant” from the Lord.

To GOD Goes The Glory!

Have A Blessed Day!