What you see is what you get?
Last weekend we went to a (gospel) concert here in the city. We saw the invitation on Facebook and if you know Poland a bit, you know that the brochures are always great, but whether the reality looks like… that is an exciting question… So, it is always a question of “do we get what we see?”….
There should be a church here, but when we arrived at the address… we saw no church. Do we have the right address?
If you then walk into the gate (because there is a sign next to the gate that there must really be a church there), you will arrive at a courtyard between some blocks of houses:
Mhhh…. uhhh are we okay here?
But watch out! Here it comes….
This is behind those houses… a beautiful(!) church! The outside is already beautiful, well painted, perfectly maintained, but when you enter…
Then it is at least as beautiful! And that concert…?
There is a concert! And that concert is great, even better than the Facebook invitation!
Wow!
And now to today….. Today we (not only us, but also you as a reader) meet people… and we quickly judge them… we see them… and within 3 seconds we already think a lot about them.
That reminded me of the following bible verse:
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7
And that can go both ways… sometimes you come across people who look very messy on the outside, but are beautiful(!) on the inside.
And sometimes.. you also meet people who look beautiful(!) on the outside…. And if you are not careful, you really believe it…. and you think: “they look great, so they will be fine”, until you really talk to them… and then it turns out that things are not going well inside at all… and that they could really use your help…
So today we want to challenge you… open the door, take a real look inside because what’s inside… is likely to be entirely different from what you see on the outside.
In the Bible, we also see it in John 7:14-24. There Jesus walked into the temple and the people looked at him strangely. Who is that guy, where does he get that wisdom from / who does he think he is / that doesn’t look like a teacher /….
The Jews therefore marveled, saying, “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?”
John 7:15
And then suddenly you see the next verse because Jesus understood very well what they were thinking…. And then He says this:
Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” What is this? “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.
John 7:24
Come on, open the door, look a little further, let yourself be surprised!