How much have I missed by seeing only the color of your hat?
In the old days of black and white cowboy movies and TV shows, you could always tell the good guys from the bad guys: the good guys wore white hats, the bad guys wore black.
That changed with color TV and movies, generally speaking. But still, it made me realize that from a very early age, I was taught to judge. It wasn’t always by the color of the hat. But you could watch a movie or a TV show and generally tell who the bad guy was by appearances – Darth Vadar all in black; Javier Bardem’s haircut as Anton Chiguth in “No Country for Old Men;” Alan Rickman’s urbane sneer as Hans Gruber in “Die Hard.” Sometimes the bad guys have stubble where they haven’t shaved, or are sweaty, or carry themselves with an arrogant demeanor. It doesn’t take long in a movie or TV show to figure out who the bad guy is.
Even our cartoons – Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale from Rocky and Bullwinkle; Simon Bar Sinister from Underdog; the cat in Tom and Jerry; The Creeper, who was really Mr. Carswell the bank owner, in Scooby-Doo – it was never hard to know right away who was going to cause problems. Captain Hook, Scar, Jafar … I'm showing myk age here, but you know them.
So it’s no wonder that as adults, we often make snap judgements about people based on appearances. Sometimes we just decide we either like or don’t like someone with one look. Maybe it’s their clothes, or their hair, the way they carry themselves.
I suppose people have done this from the beginning of time, but I wonder if my generation – the TV generation – hasn’t been taught this in a way unlike any previous generation.
We don’t typically like to admit we judge people, but I’m not sure we can help it. It’s not always bad. Sometimes we meet someone and after just a few minutes, a brief conversation, we decide we like them. It’s my experience that single adults looking for dates do this all the time; there are even songs about “the look,’’ or eyes meeting across a crowded room, a first innocent touch. Sometimes one look is all it takes to establish a good connection.
Of course, sometimes one look is all it takes to decide to be wary of someone, to feel uneasy around them, even decide if we will trust them.
But it got me wondering about how I look at people.
I was reading the verse (Acts 7:48) that says, “the Most High does not live in houses made by men.” Indeed, it seems Christ lives within people. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). In Ephesians, Paul writes, “Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.” (Ephesians 3).
There are all sorts of verses of how, as Christians, Christ lives within us, a mystery that I admit is hard to comprehend exactly what it means.
Even more, we’re told all of us bear the image of God. Not that we are God, as some would say; we are a reflection, an image of God. In Genesis 1:26 God says, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” That should count for something. Afterall, in this life we are not likely to physically see God, but we do see each other.
You want to see God? Look at the people in the pews around you on Sunday morning. John (1 John 4:12) said, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us.”
I have heard it said that the church is like looking through God’s family album. Each member is a picture of the God of the Universe. Each image is seeing God from a different angle, a different mood, a different moment. Here He is as a baby; here He is as an old man; here He is as a young woman who doesn’t understand how beautiful she is because she doesn’t realize she is a reflection of God; here He is as a young man who is trying to prove himself, not understanding his place in God yet. Our personalities reflect God’s personality - although ours have been corrupted by sin. Yet all our qualities reflect to some degree the nature of God.
You never know when someone may suddenly surprise you. My wife has a wonderful trait of finding something interesting in almost everyone she meets. I am trying to be more like that – even though I have years of self-centeredness to overcome.
Each of us comes across thousands, if not millions, of people in our lifetime. You never know who may be the one that astonishes us, teaches us, reveals something we’d never seen before. I wonder what I have missed in dismissing so many people I’ve come across in my life.
You know the story of Jacob and Esau? They were twin brothers who had a falling out, and Jacob ran away in fear. Finally, he came home, but was terrified by how his brother – whom he had wronged – might react. (This is the story where Jacob meets and wrestles with God, and sees Jacob’s ladder, in Genesis).
But Esau does welcome Jacob back. And Jacob says, in Genesis 33:10, “To see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably.”
Jacob saw the glory of God in a human face.
How much have I missed by focusing only the color of the hat they’re wearing?
