USGN Article  - April 2004
Terry & Barbi Franklin
Written by Terry Franklin

It’s A Secret 

If you watch television talk shows, you’ve probably observed an odd phenomenon:  As the host is breaking for a commercial – the camera beginning to pull away to a wide-shot – the host, be it Letterman, Leno, Oprah, or a host of others, bends toward the guest and seems to be speaking something private.  This is usually done with their hand cupped over one side of their face.  Of course, at this point the microphones have been muted, the “applause” signs are on, and we are unable to know what they are discussing.  It’s a secret.

The impression this gives is one of camaraderie between the guest and host and, whether real or affected, gives the observer the sense that these folks are sharing “inside” information – something unavailable to the viewer.

What are they talking about?  “You playing any golf these days?”; “Man, these new shoes are killing me?”; “Boy, I could use a nice cold one about now.” And on a few occasions when a guest just wasn’t connecting with an audience, or something was not going very well during their banter, I would have loved to have heard their “private” conversation.

But we will never know.  It’s a secret.

God has secrets that He whispers…. but only to a select few.  Amos 3:7 says, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.”  And these are not necessarily the guys in the $2,000 suits on Christian television.  It might be an aging grandmother in a retirement home that had “…come to the Garden alone..” so many times that she could say with confidence, and without even a trace of arrogance, that, “He walks with me and He talks with me…”  This is a faith developed from years of walking with Jesus and listening to Him.

And as her life is beginning to come to its close – she hears applause – but not from a prodded studio audience.  It’s coming from another world.  As the colors fade, and the camera of her life begins to pull away, we see her….smiling.  Someone is talking to her, but we’ll never know what they are saying.  It’s a secret.

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