A favorite practice of mine each year is spending a few minutes looking back through my Ring camera footage of the kids from my neighborhood who visit my house for trick or trick.
Having two children of trick or treat age in my house, passing out our candy myself is not an option. So we put out a bowl filled with candy, create a sign asking the kids to take a couple of pieces and then allow the ring doorbell camera to watch over the bowl. Then at the end of the night, I scroll back through the footage for notable costumes.
As I looked at the footage of a giant inflated chicken raiding my candy bowl, something dawned on me. We are pretty good in life and especially in church of putting on a mask. "Good," "fine", "great" are the answers that we often give to the questions we get in the hallways at church when someone asks "How are you?" even when we aren't okay, fine, good or great. We put on a mask. We hide.
Jesus sees through the mask. When Jesus showed up at Mary and Martha's, he wasn't surprised by their emotions. He wept with them. His heart went out to them. They were vulnerable with him and he was vulnerable with them. You don't have to fight your battles alone.
Jesus sees you. Jesus knows you. Psalm 34: "The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."