Recently our granddaughter came to our daughter with tears in her eyes. Holding up 2 pens in a trembling hand, she complained, “Tata (Aunt), these pens are broke!”
“What do you mean, Bon Bon?” Rishana asked. The pens looked fine, so she had no idea what Bexlie was talking about.
“This one’s red and this one’s blue, but they only write black,” Bexlie replied in disgust.
Trying not to laugh, Rishana patiently explained that, just because the pens were red and blue on the outside, that didn’t mean the ink inside would be the same color too.
When Rishana told me this story later, I had to laugh, but then I got thinking maybe my little granddaughter had noticed something I could learn a lesson from.
It’s so easy for us to jump to conclusions about things based just on what we see on the outside. I’ll never forget the Chinese take-out place we found when we lived in Dayton, OH. On the outside it was a rundown hole-in-the-wall in a bad neighborhood, but inside it was clean and bright and the food was amazing. If I hadn’t looked beyond the exterior, I would have missed out on an incredibly tasty meal.
We do the same with people. One person sports tattoos and piercings in places we would never think to hang jewelry, while another doesn’t have a hair out of place and wears an expensive suit. Looking at their outward appearance we easily jump to conclusions about who we’d rather spend time with. However, if we take the time to get to know them, we may find they’re both just like us – hurting, hoping, just trying to make it through another day. In other words, human.
Thankfully, while we may “look at the outward appearance, the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7 NIV). To God the bum on the corner, the executive in the corner office, and you and I are all the same – His dearly loved children. “God does not show favoritism…” (Acts 10:34). In His eyes there is “neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galations 3:28).
So, learn a lesson from my granddaughter and remember, you can’t judge a pen – or a person – by its color. Only God knows what’s really on the inside. Instead of wasting time judging others, let God use you to write His love is another person’s life today.