When the Glitter Fades

Last night, the Oscars were on.  I rarely watch much of them.  Sure, I like the fashions and seeing if any movie I watched might have won something.  I just don’t like staying up late anymore.  But my husband asked me to stay up until after the In Memoriam section.

This year, I was struck by something.  As Bette Midler struggled through emotion to sing “You are the Wind beneath My Wings” during the In Memoriam, it occurred to me that she’d lost friends, probably plenty of them that year.  Picture by picture, the screen recorded how many of Hollywood’s notable people had their lives on earth conclude since the last Oscars.  As the parade of stars whose glitter faded as they hit the silver screen one last time, I turned to my husband and said, “Wow.  I wonder how many of them were Christians?”

There is a shallow immortality on a flat screen and its archives. 

All height and width–the depth is only illusory. 

Their lives had been spent portraying life–real life, historical life, fantasy life, animated life. 

But did they have true and eternal life when the glitter fades?

Hollywood is not known for its love of Christianity nor for honoring God Almighty.  Any of the stars who had faith in Jesus Christ probably kept it fairly close to the vest. 

Star light under a bowl.

I reflected back to earlier in the ceremonies on the bravery of Darlene Love, age 72, who was one of the actresses in the Best Documentary 20 Feet from Stardom.  Before exiting offstage with the rest of the Oscar recipients, she stepped up to the microphone to powerfully perform a cappella a short section of the gospel hymn His Eye Is on the Sparrow. She received a standing ovation.  Deservedly so.

I wonder how many of the people standing were doing this to honor the woman and her talent, how many might have been standing because it was African-American gospel and anything “black” is in right now, but also how many saw the bravery of a woman with conviction to stand and declare that God watches, that she knows what true freedom is, and that she knows what happens when the glitter fades.

By way of reminder, if you’re receiving these devotionals in your e-mail, keep watching for Be Still and Know that I AM God, the devotional series for Lent (2014) beginning March 5th, Ash Wednesday.