When I was a little girl I would love to pretend that I was someone famous and that everywhere I went people would notice me. I often wonder if the reason I desired this came from being one of the youngest in my family. Five children, all within three and a half years definitely overwhelmed my parents and there just wasn’t a lot of attention to go around. So, I went into my imagination mode and only saw wonderful things happen as a famous and beautiful young woman.
Well life didn’t work out the way that I imagined it would. I was neither famous nor beautiful. For many years I was aggravated with God for not allowing my dreams to come true until my late thirties. It was then that I started to realize the gift of obscurity. Dictionary.com defines obscurity as the condition of being unknown. And for the most part, outside of friends and family, I am living a life in the unknown. I can spend my days going from place to place without hardly anyone noticing me. I am not bothered by people wanting my attention and being a task driven individual, hardly no one gets in my way. Now I call that a gift..
So if obscurity is something to be treasured, I can only appreciate Jesus for his willingness to give it up for me. Not much is written about him until he shows up for his baptism. In the book of Isaiah 53:2 it states, “He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” In other words, he was a common looking man that didn’t stand out as being overly handsome. Jesus could have chosen to stay in the shadows enjoying his obscurity but instead he went from being unknown to a man that lived his last three years being followed by the masses. No more trips to the market without being recognized. No more days that could be spent alone doing what he wanted to do. Instead, his life became a constant interaction with people wanting something from him.
After reflecting on the value of obscurity, I can’t help but truly be grateful to this man that was willing to give his up so that I could have life and to the fullest.