The Un-Hooded

If you were to look inside the closet in my foyer, you would see a collection of coats.
A long dress coat, two pea coats, and jackets in scrumptious colors.
I have coats to choose from for various occasions, yet I have a few I like better than others.
The ones I like the best and wear the most are the ones that have hoods.

If I wear the jacket everyday, it will most definitely have a hood.
A hood to pull up when it is windy.
A hood to pull up if it rains.
A hood, which covers my head but alleviates “hat hair” which most women understand.

When I walk on a cold morning, my hood is always up.
I fasten it with a winter scarf so that no cold air can get in at all.
I have often thought that the hood is the best thing ever invented.
It is a built in umbrella, windshield, and covering all in one.

When my daughter received her master’s degree she was hooded.
When my son graduated from law school, he was hooded.
Those hoods are now hanging with their ceremonial robes.
A symbol of the grace of God and the accomplishment He allowed in their lives.

I never realized that the ceremonial hoods had various colors for conferred degrees.
My daughter’s hood is light blue for education; my son’s hood is purple for law.
The velvet in the hood represents the academic color; the satin, the school colors.
There is pride in those hoods representing many years of hard work and dedication.

The color of a hood can also be a source of shame.
The hood that does not go around the neck, but rather the hood that covers the face.
The hood that attempts to conceal evil.
The hood that attempts to hide the face of the one underneath.

I think of the hoods that are white and the hoods that are black.
I think of the brutality that is performed as the perpetrator hides.
I think of the life that is heinously taken at the hands of the hooded one.
The face of evil lies beneath the hood.

One color hood represents death because of race.
One color hood represents death because of faith.
Each color hood had to do with deeds done in the name of the prince of this world.
The accuser, diabolos: Satan.

How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit enthroned on the mount of the assembly on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High. But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit. (Isaiah 14:12-15)

Another name for Satan is Lucifer, which means “morning star.”
This morning star often refers to Venus, one of the brightest objects in the sky.
When the sun rises, even the light from the brightest star is totally eclipsed.
Nothing shines brighter than the sun.

Nothing shines brighter than the SON.

Each day we see before us pictures of atrocities done in the name of the evil one.
Atrocities done in the name of the one who intends to make myself like the Most High.
The one who thinks that he can be greater than God.
The one who thinks that he can usurp God’s rightful throne.

The evil one has others do his bidding.
The evil one kills, tortures, and beheads in the name of the one who will go to the pit.
Blood is shed and the evil one laughs and rejoices and thinks that he is victorious.
Blood is shed in the hopes that the race will die or that the faith will die.

The enemy couldn’t be more wrong!
Tertullian was a Christian author and apologist from Carthage.
Carthage was in the Roman province of Africa.
Tertullian made a famous observation.

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

Persecution in the church has the opposite affect.
The church grows despite the objective of the evil one.
What was meant to destroy the church actually increases those coming to faith.
Faith increases in the persecuted areas when others see people dying for Christ.

The gates of hell will not prevail upon Christ’s church.
We, who are not hooded, stand with our faces radiant in His beauty.
We, who are not hooded, stand with His holy armor on, ready for battle.
We, who are not hooded, must call evil by its name.

We must unmask the ones who do the enemy’s bidding.
We must un-hood the evil that is so desperately trying to hide its face.
Underneath the hoods, we will see the morning star.
The morning star that will be totally eclipsed by the SON!

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter…for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 5:20, 24)

We, the un-hooded, the Church of Christ who prevails, are victorious in Him.
Amen!

 

2 responses to “The Un-Hooded”

1. One powerful post and so much to absorb. THANK YOU!

   Reply

   • Cathy,
     Powerful for me as well as I began to ponder all this topic entailed. There is no condemnation in Christ. There is no shame when we stand with our faces uncovered in His Glory.
     We must call evil, evil. We must not sugarcoat it any longer.
     Gina

     Reply