I recently heard the following story:

There was an actor who, in the recession, couldn’t get a job. He was looking in the want ads in the newspaper, and he saw an ad by the local zoo that said they were short on monkeys. He thought, “That’s maybe something I could do.” So he went to the zoo. He applied for the job. He got it. They handed him a monkey suit. He put it on and got in the monkey cage.

He was an entertainer at heart, so monkey-see; monkey-do. They scratched; he scratched. They ate bananas; he ate bananas. Then he noticed that there was a rope hanging from the top of the monkey cage. If he would grab hold of this rope and begin to swing across the cage, the fans really liked that. So he would swing across that cage. He would do all kinds of acrobatics and tricks. As an actor, he loved this.

One Saturday morning it was a beautiful, sunshiny day. Crowds from all over gathered to watch this amazing death-defying monkey swinging back and forth on this rope. Now, what he had not noticed was that right next to the monkey cage was the lion’s cage. As he was swinging back and forth, just going further and further, getting more and more brave, he swung out over the lion’s cage.

The crowd just loved it, until all of a sudden the rope broke, and he fell smack in the middle of that den of lions. Those lions began stalking and pawing and growling at him. One lion began to run into him in an attack formation. All of a sudden the actor tore off his monkey costume, and he started to scream, “Help! Help! Get me out of here!” only to hear the lion say, “Shut up you fool or we’ll all lose our jobs.”

Do you ever feel like the guy in the monkey suit?  Always pretending?  We all do it to a certain extent.  There are definitely things about us that we don’t want anyone to know about.  It could be something from our past, our private thoughts or how we feel.  We joke about the fact that when someone asks us how we are we paste on a smile and say “fine, thank you” when deep down we are struggling with a hurt, disappointment, or physical pain.  What would people think of us if they knew how we really are? 

I take comfort in the fact that I can share absolutely everything with God because He already knows everything anyway.  Sometimes it’s hard to form the words but how freeing it can be to be able to express what is deep down in our souls.  When I think of God knowing us, I think of Psalm 139:13-14 which talks about how we were knit in our mother’s wombs and how we are fearfully and wonderfully made.  However, when I looked up this passage I felt like it would be beneficial to share the entire Psalm: 

Psalm 139

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

¹ O LORD, you have searched me
       and you know me.

² You know when I sit and when I rise;
       you perceive my thoughts from afar.

³ You discern my going out and my lying down;
       you are familiar with all my ways.

⁴ Before a word is on my tongue
       you know it completely, O LORD.

⁵ You hem me in—behind and before;
       you have laid your hand upon me.

⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
       too lofty for me to attain.

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
       Where can I flee from your presence?

⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
       if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
       if I settle on the far side of the sea,

¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
       your right hand will hold me fast.

¹¹ If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
       and the light become night around me,"

¹² even the darkness will not be dark to you;
       the night will shine like the day,
       for darkness is as light to you.

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
       you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
       your works are wonderful,
       I know that full well.

¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
       when I was made in the secret place.
       When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body.
       All the days ordained for me
       were written in your book
       before one of them came to be.

¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
       How vast is the sum of them!

¹⁸ Were I to count them,
       they would outnumber the grains of sand.
       When I awake,
       I am still with you.

¹⁹ If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
       Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;
       your adversaries misuse your name.

²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
       and abhor those who rise up against you?

²² I have nothing but hatred for them;
       I count them my enemies.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
       test me and know my anxious thoughts.

²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
       and lead me in the way everlasting.

May you be blessed in the reading of these words that God gave to David to write down so long ago but which are just as rich and applicable to our lives today. 

Have a great day!