Thursday, November 20, 2008

A Beautify Package

Have you ever been to a White Elephant party? This is where people will take things from their house they do not need or want any longer and bring as gifts. Some things can be really nice, but some things can be something as gross as someone cleaning out their medicine cabinet and putting all the old tubes of ointments and creams in a box. (I actually got that once). Sometimes the ladies will wrap the presents in beautiful wrappings and if you go for the outside appearance and pick the most beautiful package, you may get surprised as I did. Who would have ever dreamed that someone would waste that pretty packaging on something so gross? Not I!

This is how we look at people sometimes, we look at the outside and we are so distracted sometimes if they are different than we are, that we do not see the inside. We don't see what is in their hearts. We are a strange people the way we try to stay away from someone just because they are not the same as we are. Some people are so distracted by the color of someone's skin that they act as if they touch them the color will rub off on them. In other words we as human beings can not see past the man to his heart, and we miss out on the blessing of getting to know that person, and what that person may contribute to our lives. My favorite teacher in school was a black woman, she taught me how to see past the color of someone's skin. She taught me how to be proud of who I am, and how to do the best I could do. I was a drop out, and she got me back into school, and the two years under her teaching, I was on the honor roll, and had a perfect attendance at school. She taught me alot about responsibility and how to look at people from the inside out. But most importantly she taught my father who was very prejudiced at the time, to look past the color and see what a wonderful person she was, and he came to respect her and call her friend and was very grateful to her for how she turned me around. That was a blessing in itself to teach someone that a color of skin is nothing but a color, it is still skin underneath, and we are all made from the same creator. AMEN!

1 Sam. 16 v 7b.....For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.......

Aren't you glad that the LORD does not look at us and judge us from our outward appearance but that He looks into our hearts to see the real you and me? Sometimes we can not help our outward appearance because of different situations, we may be down on our luck and not have the best clothes to wear, or sometimes we may have strayed so far, that we have let ourselves go and quit taking care of ourselves. But the good news is, the LORD is there to pick you up no matter what you look like, no matter what kind of wrapping you have on the outside, He sees the inside. There are no surprises for the LORD. He already knows what to expect.

Don't always go for the beautiful package, you may miss out on the best gifts of all. Take time to really look at the package, and see what kind of surprises are hidden inside waiting to bless you.



Neta

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