Obsessed with Masks

During this time of social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people are looking for things to do. Some say their homes have never been so clean. Others go through their wardrobes and drawers to help fill the Red Cross’s clothes containers. I sew face masks. I don’t know how many times I got fed up and said, “It’s enough! I won’t sew another mask!” Yet here I am, at it again. After stitching more than 140 pleated masks, I am trying the fitted masks. I will probably be at it for a while.

I started sewing face masks early in the pandemic, expecting the time would come when we would need them. In serial production, I used leftover material I had at home. I sent masks to family and friends, but there were still a lot left over. What should I do with them? The church was closed. Then the idea came to send masks to church members since the need would come at some point.

That meant more masks were needed, and another skilled seamstress took up the task of making another 110 masks to put in surprise parcels.

In addition to the masks, the packages included encouraging reading material and craft ideas and surprises for the children. Many members contacted church leaders to thank them for their surprise parcels. We are hoping church services will resume after the shutdown. What it will be like, we don’t know yet, but at least we have sufficient masks for the church’s members and guests.

I have often thought about how we are used to putting on our “Sabbath masks” when we come to church —masks hiding our hurts and pains as we put on a smile to keep others at a distance. Or we wear masks of religious compatibility so that nobody can see what we are really like. Now the community masks we use hide our smiles. But they will not be able to hide our joy at successfully overcoming a difficult phase in our lives. And when we are finally allowed to dispose of our masks, we will appreciate our freedom more than ever. I hope we learn to be authentic and live without our “Sabbath masks” as well. During difficult times, let’s fix our eyes on “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (2 Corinthians 1:3, 4, NIV).

Hannele Ottschofski