Human beings are certainly driven by appearance. Our eyes take in information, then our brain defines what we see as good or not good. Beautiful or not. Worthy or not. Valuable or not. We tend to make an evaluation based on sight alone. Is this what we label, “first impressions”?

Back about 1999 or 2000, my Dad had decided to purchase his neighbor Del’s red Ford truck. It was fairly new. Del had worked for the Ford corporation and could trade in his vehicle every couple of years for a new model at a greatly reduced price. Daddy was driving a 1990 gray Chevrolet truck at the time. He felt the need to upgrade his truck…and rightly so. The truck was an eyesore for sure.

Baxter had a new Ford truck and Rob had a new truck. We had restored Baxter’s 1969 Chevrolet truck. So whenever I needed mushroom compost or mulch, I’d ask Daddy to borrow his gray truck. If you have ever experienced mushroom compost, you know it is fabulous for growing healthy plants. The downside is that it STINKS. Not a little…a lot. So I couldn’t bring myself to use those nice trucks for such a dirty job. I needed an “ eyesore’ kind of truck.

Daddy always consented to my using his old truck. It was dirty. Used for fishing and gardening. The gray paint was peeling off. Not a showpiece by any means. So when he called one morning to offer to sell me the truck, I did not hesitate. His exact words were, “Gwen, do you want to buy my truck? I’m buying Del’s truck and I want you to have a way to haul your s—t.” Bless his heart. His language was always peppered with what today would be “offensive”. I guess it sounds ugly to some…but that’s just how those ole guys spoke.

When I would drive my nice car to town and get out in a parking lot, people would smile and speak. I was “acceptable”. But when I drove that beat-up, paint peeling truck and had on my old gardening clothes, people would look the other way. Bless. Same person. Different presentation.

And when I have needed to put cream on my face for precancerous places, of course my face becomes blood red and whelped. So when I appear in public looking like that, people stare or look the other way. If I’m my regular self, people smile and speak. Same person. Different presentation.

This is not Christ like. I’ve been pondering this for a long time. I don’t want to be so shallow and small. I don’t want my eyes to completely form my opinions. I want to see each person as being made in our Abba’s image. No one is “less than”. I don’t know who to credit this quote but it always rings true…”The ground is level at the foot of the cross.”

Experiencing this stuff is so good for me. It reminds me to remember who I am and Whose I am…and to remember Who my neighbor is and Whose they are…