Genesis 27

Camouflage

She put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck. Genesis 27:16.

In the summer of 1918 I spent a few weeks on the shores of the Moray Firth. Out in the Firth lay a number of American warships, and many of these were camouflaged. They were painted with odd dazzling stripes and splashes. Some of them looked just as if the painter had spilt several pots of different colored paint over them. Well, you know the reason of these odd decorations. They were put there to protect the ships from the German submarines. When the vessels were painted in that way it was difficult for the submarines to calculate the speed at which they were travelling, or even the direction in which they were moving.

And camouflage was adopted not only on the sea, but also on land. In another part of Scotland I saw a number of airplane sheds near the sea-shore. These sheds were painted in shades of brown and yellow and green to imitate the sand-dunes among which they were built. And so it was near the battlefields in France and elsewhere. Gun emplacements, etc., were disguised so as to resemble the surrounding landscape.

But camouflage is much older than the wars of this past century. Those of you who have read Macbeth will remember how Birnam Wood came to Dunsinane.

Macbeth, the murderer of good King Duncan and usurper of his throne, had been told by an evil spirit that he should never be vanquished until Birnam Wood came to Dunsinane. And the murderer thought himself safe, for how could a great forest be uprooted and move from one place to another? But you remember how the prophecy came true. Malcolm, the young son of Duncan, came with an army to lay siege to Macbeth's castle of Dunsinane. And as they passed through Birnam Wood, Malcolm ordered each of his soldiers to hew down a bough and carry it before him so as to conceal the real number of the host.

So you find camouflage in early Scottish history. But camouflage is older still than the days of Macbeth. You find instances of it in the Bible. The first one is the camouflage of Jacob by Rebekah. When Rebekah wished to procure the blessing of the first-born for her favorite younger son she dressed Jacob in Esau's garments and then, because Esau was a rough, hairy man, she took the skins of the kids Jacob had killed and put them on his hands and round his neck. Thus disguised, Jacob went into the presence of his old blind father and received the blessing intended for his elder brother.

Now we may make use of camouflage in everyday life. And I want to speak about two kinds of camouflage that we may use a good and a bad. We shall take the bad kind first.

1. I have known girls who camouflaged broken dishes so that they might look whole. I have known boys who camouflaged their math or their essays so that they might appear to be their own work when they were really copies of somebody else's. I have known tradesmen who camouflaged their goods to look good and genuine when they were only cheap and inferior. But the worst kind of camouflage is when we camouflage ourselves.

There is a Russian fable which tells how two porcelain vases stood side by side at an open window. One vase contained real flowers plucked from the Kings garden, the other held artificial flowers. They stood there together in the sun and the breeze, and you could hardly tell the difference between the real flowers and the unreal. But presently the sky darkened and the rain fell. The raindrops beat in at the window. They refreshed the real flowers and brought out the glory of their blue and yellow and scarlet. But the false flowers became smeared and stained and spoiled.

Just as the sun shone out again a servant entered the room. He looked at the artificial flowers, pulled them out of the vase, and carried them to the trash-heap.

So things that are not real, things that pretend to be what they are not, won't stand the test. And it is the same with people.

Do you remember how, in Alice in Wonderland, Alice could not quite make out what mustard was? At last she said to the Duchess, “Oh, I know it's a vegetable; it doesn't look like one, but it is.” And the Duchess replied, “I quite agree with you. The moral of that is, ‘Be what you seem to be.'”

That is splendid advice. “Be what you seem to be.” Don't pretend to be what you are not. Don't try to ape somebody else who is really quite different. The best people, the only people who count, admire you far more for what you are, however humble and plain you may be, than for what you pretend to be.

2. But there is a good kind of camouflage too. I wonder what it is? Well there is a camouflage we can all use to make disagreeable things nice, and difficult things easy, and ugly things beautiful. Boys and girls are specially qualified for this kind of camouflage, because they have such splendid imaginations.

There was once a small boy called Teddy who had to take nasty medicine. He used to make an awful fuss about it and he had to eat candy after it, and a great deal of condoling and consoling into the bargain. But one day he took his dose quietly and his mother could not understand the reason. So she said, “You're getting accustomed to it: aren't you, Teddy?”

“Well, not 'xackly,” replied Teddy, “but you see, Tom and I used to go to the garden and eat 'sturium seeds and didn't they nip our tongues! Then we went down to the brook and ate wild grapes, and my! weren't they sour! And then we went under the oak trees and chewed acorns, and they were awful bitter! But we didn't mind 'cos we did it all for fun. So you see I'm pertending that I'm taking this nasty stuff for fun and it doesn't seem half so bad.” Brave little Teddy!

Let me tell you one more story. It is related by a great writer of fiction. It is the story of a poor toy maker who had a blind daughter. To keep her from growing sad he pretended that they were very wealthy, that the rooms they lived in were exquisitely furnished, that the old sack he wore for a coat was a costly garment, and that he, who was nearly broken-hearted with care and poverty, was the happiest of men.

Boys and girls will you try to do a little camouflaging of that sort? It will help you, it will help others, it will make glad the heart of Jesus, who came to earth to bear the burdens of others, to give life and joy to all.