Are You Walking Past Your Miracle?
Picture this: a room full of lovely ladies, a painting lesson in full swing, and a punch table front and center. My dear ministry partner had worked hard to create not one, but two delightful punch options for our Community Ladies' Luncheon last Saturday. She blended, stirred, and taste-tested with the dedication of a seasoned chef. And the result? One punch turned the most gorgeous shade of coral you've ever seen. It was bright, cheerful, and practically hollering, "Come drink me!" Every woman in the room floated toward it like a bee to a flower.
The other punch? Oh, bless its heart. Somewhere in the blending process, the colors had a disagreement, and what emerged was a murky, grayish concoction that looked—and I say this with all the tenderness I can muster—exactly like dirty mop water. Nobody wanted anything to do with it. Women would walk up, take one look, wrinkle their noses, and quietly shuffle away. The truly tragic part? That punch was actually quite good. It tasted perfectly lovely. But its appearance was so off-putting that most of the ladies never gave it a fair chance. We had a good laugh about it, but somewhere between the chuckling, the Lord tapped me on the shoulder with a thought that wiped the smile right off my face.
How many people in my life have I treated just like that gray punch?
Think about it. How quickly do we size someone up? The woman with the hard edge and the sharp tongue? We steer clear. The man with the questionable past? We keep our distance. The teenager with the attitude and the strange hair? We don't bother. We take one look at the outside, make our determination, and move on. Never mind what might be on the inside. Never mind what God might be doing in that person's life or what He might want to do through us in theirs.
Samuel nearly made this exact mistake. When God sent him to anoint the next king of Israel, Samuel took one look at Eliab, tall, handsome, commanding, and thought, Surely this is the Lord's anointed. But God stopped him cold. "Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7) Samuel would have crowned the wrong man entirely, based on nothing more than what he could see with his eyes.
And don't we do the same thing every single day?
We pass over the rough-around-the-edges neighbor and never share the gospel. We write off the difficult woman in our church instead of loving her through whatever is making her prickly. We assume that the person who has failed (maybe many times) isn't worth our investment. But God has never once looked at a human soul and decided it wasn't worth the effort. He looked at a murderer named Paul and saw a missionary. He looked at a coward named Gideon and called him a mighty man of valor. He looked at a ragged, demon-possessed man living among tombs and saw someone worth crossing a lake for.
Here's the sobering truth: every single soul you encounter has been made in the image of God. Every single one has a story you don't fully know. And every single one is someone for whom Christ died. When we dismiss people based on appearance, behavior, or reputation, we're not just being uncharitable. We're potentially walking right past a divine appointment.
James 2:1 puts it plainly: "My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons."
Playing favorites (or, in this case, avoiding the unfavorable) has no place in the life of a believer. The ground is level at the foot of the cross, and we'd do well to remember what we looked like before grace found us.
That gray punch sat largely untouched all afternoon. What a waste.
Don't let a soul go untouched because of what you see on the outside. Look a little closer. Love a little deeper. You might just find something worth savoring.