Learning to Look on the Inside, Not the Outside

Got a question for you: If you were in a hospital, in desperate need of a blood transfusion, would you ask whether the blood had come from a Caucasian, African-American, Asian, Hispanic or Middle Eastern person?

 

When a cardiothoracic surgeon opens someone up to perform open-heart surgery, do you suppose he or she is concerned about whether the patient is African-American, Hispanic, Caucasian, Middle Eastern or Asian?

 

The answer to both questions is – or should be – an emphatic, No. Because on the inside, all human beings are the same. Blood and plasma are the same, regardless of the race or ethnicity of the donor. On the inside, we each have a heart, a liver, kidneys, lungs, intestines, and all that other stuff. And they all function in the same ways – it doesn’t matter whether you come from a rich family or poor, what language you speak, or whether your skin color is naturally dark or you have to lay in the sun or a tanning booth to get that way.

So why in the world do we continue to remain so hung up, so obsessed with the amount of pigmentation – or lack – of someone’s skin?

 

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but vividly remember the time I was meeting with a young African-American man, his first name was Rhon. We were early in a discipling relationship, and one day out of the blue he asked, “Bob, if Jesus were to come up and stand in front of me, would He see a black man?”

 

Thankfully, I didn’t have to fumble for a response. A verse I had recently read came immediately to mind: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Although I believe God created different skin colors and ethnic features, perhaps simply for the sake of variety, just as He created cardinals and eagles, blue jays and robins, barred owls and sparrows, He doesn’t regard us differently because of our skin, status or sex.

 

In fact, 1 Samuel 16:7 states this emphatically. After the prophet Samuel had become frustrated after examining each son of Jesse and finding none to be of God’s choosing for the next king of Israel, God told him, “…The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

 

Elsewhere, speaking about motives but also referring to the folly of judging solely based on externals, Proverbs 21:2 tells us, “All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart.” Similarly, “The lamp of the Lord searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being” (Proverbs 20:27).

 

Today our nation is once again embroiled in racial strife. Factions are demanding an end to racism, sometimes through acts of violence and hatred. Which is like trying to put out a house fire with a blowtorch.

 

Without intending to sound simplistic, the real answers to racism, prejudice and ignorance are not found in more legislation, or other forms of governmental force. It’s by learning to do as the Bible instructs – to stop concentrating on outward appearances, whatever they may be, and discovering how to look inward, to the heart. Recognizing one another as God’s creations and, potentially, as His children. It’s offered to all who respond to the gracious gifts of salvation, forgiveness and reconciliation, provided through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on a crude cross 2,000 years ago.

 

On this page I’ve included an image of white and black hands clenched together, with an American flag in the background. I don’t know its artist, but it wonderfully captures the spirit and hope we all should seek to show toward one another.

 

With forces in our society pressing to keep us separate and perpetually at odds, intending to destroy and divide, only in Christ can we achieve true and undisrupted unity. As Philippians 2:1-2 declares:

“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.”

 

Did you notice that the key word in this passage is “if”? A tiny word, yet its significance looms as large as the entire world. Jesus Christ gives us the capacity. Are we willing to implement it?

Red, the New Blonde?

Maybe it’s just me, but there seems to be an explosion of female redheads on TV and in the movies these days.

On many of the TV shows I watch regularly – including “Castle,” “Unforgettable,” “Body of Proof” and “Fringe” – at least one of the central characters has flaming red hair. In fact, on “Castle,” both the mother and daughter of the star (Richard Castle, played by brown-headed Nathan Fillion) are redheads. And in “Unforgettable,” Poppy Montgomery portrays star detective Carrie Wells. From 2002 to 2009, Montgomery starred in “Without a Trace”…as a blonde.

Many works of art, classic and
contemporary, celebrate
the red-haired female.

I’ve also noticed TV commercials embracing the trend. Spots ranging from fast-food restaurants to cell phone providers have female characters with “pelo rojo” (which I think is Spanish for red hair).

Some actresses have naturally red hair, including Amy Adams, Julianne Moore, Emma Stone, Isla Fisher and Marcia Cross. But since statistically only one to four percent of the world’s population is comprised of redheaded people, what in the name of Lucille Ball is going on?

I haven’t read anything definitive, but apparently the powers-that-be in entertainment have decreed that red is the new blonde.

Used to be, dating back to the days of Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly, it was reasoned that gentlemen prefer blondes. (Somebody really ought to make a movie with that title.) But perhaps blonde has become passé, demanding something more distinctive – such as bright red tresses that, as least on the digital screen, are no longer as uncommon as they once were.

Or maybe it’s just a reflection of the state of the U.S. government, which has made normative red tape and budgets drowning in red ink.

Years ago there was a popular business book called Dress for Success. Could be that casting centers in Hollywood have a similar book called Red Tresses for Successes.

All I know is regardless of how you change the packaging, what’s inside (the inner person) will always be what counts the most.

Thousands of years ago, Israel was searching for a king to replace Saul, who proved to be a royal failure. The prophet Samuel was directed to the family of Jesse, who had a collection of fine, rugged-looking sons. Several of them passed the “look test” as likely candidates to succeed Saul, but God rejected them all. Instead He chose the youngest of the brothers, a humble shepherd boy named David.

Why? As God explained to Samuel, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

And that, my friends, is how God looks at us as well.