Several years ago, we moved into a house with an apple tree in the back yard. At first we thought they were merely crab apples, but neighbors assured us these were “good” apples, so we decided to make use of them.
As we picked the fruit, we noticed that there were very few perfect apples. Many had bumps and spots and were misshapen. We debated as to whether the apples were truly any good, but we continued to pick them, figuring we’d just have a lot of bad spots to cut out.
When we started the process of peeling and slicing the apples, we discovered that for all their outward imperfections, the apples were of surprisingly good quality inside. If we had judged the apples on their outer appearance, we would have missed out on a lot of good fruit.
The world tends to only look at a person’s outward appearance. It makes decisions of worth based solely on things that are skin deep. But God does not see us this way. Instead of judging our beauty from the outside, he judges by the fruit in our hearts.
People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7
