SHALLOW OR ASTUTE?

"But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth ; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." (I Samuel 16:7)

This past Thursday afternoon, I stopped into a post office to purchase a few stamped envelopes. Directly in front of me in line were two young people who absolutely caught my eye. I would guess that each of them was around twenty-one-years-old. Each was wearing a red hooded sweatshirt. I have a number of comments to make here that could get me into some difficulty and even cause some people to lose respect for me. I know we're not supposed to judge people by their looks. The Bible verse I opened with makes that very clear. It comes from the story of the prophet Samuel anointing young David as the future king of Israel. Samuel was very impressed by David's tall, handsome, and impressive older brothers. In comparison, David was just a kid. Yet, David was the one whom God had chosen. Looks meant very little to God; it was a person's heart, that is his character and values that really mattered. Yet, the way we dress and act does speaks volumes about ourselves. If we're slobby and rude, for instance, belching and chewing gum with our mouths open, giving off body odor, and "wearing" samples of lunch stuck to our faces, there's just a certain impression we make that says we're careless and insensitive.

Yes, the two young people in front of me with the red hooded sweatshirts made an impression. To use a common expression, they were "making out all over the place". Several times they passionately kissed. One was a white girl who looked like her image could have been on a Norman Rockwell painting. She was pretty. She did not look like a model, but she was pretty. More than that, I'd describe her look as "sweet". That old song, "Ain't She Sweet?" could certainly have described her appearance. There was a look of innocence and goodness on her face. In fact, she looked so innocent as to be naive. She had a few small freckles and a pleasant smiling face. She was thin, not painfully thin, but just a bit thin. She wore an attractive pair of dark blue denim jeans. She had beautiful brown hair. It was on the long side, and included a pony tail. Her companion was, I think a male. I am still not certain of the companion's gender. I will use the term "he" but "he" could have been a "she". The companion was at least part Far Eastern- maybe Chinese. I am not convinced the companion was fully Chinese; perhaps he was part Far Eastern and part Caucasian. His hair was black. It was shorter than the brown haired girl's but it was fairly long. The black hair was a mess. I am embarrassed that I awaken with a terrible case of "bed head" every morning. Only a good showering fixes up my hair! This kid definitely needed such a shower! He was wearing baggy beige shorts. Shorts just did not seem like proper February attire! I did not detect any facial stubble on the black haired youth; and the mannerisms seemed slightly feminine. This person was a bit overweight. (I'm quite overweight, too, honestly!) The messy dark haired one was covered in tattoos all over his left arm. I'm not a big tattoo person at all; but I will admit that some small tattoos can be attractive in certain cases. These tattoos were psychedelic and just way over done! It was like, "How would you like a bit of arm with your tattoos?!" Why anyone thinks that looks attractive, I don't know! The messy black haired person also had pierced ear lobes and big ugly studs in them. I'm not enthusiastic about guys wearing earrings, but again, a small jewel on the ear can look attractive. There was nothing attractive about these studs.

My father would be ninety years old if he was still alive. Dad was a World War 2 vet. He hated the Beatles. He hated the Rolling Stones. He hated just about all pop music which came out after the era of President Kennedy. He hated long hair on guys, and for the most part disliked facial hair on guys. He made a big deal about appearance. As a teenager, I disliked the way he judged people's looks. Now, here I was: age 58, uncomfortable with certain fashion styles of people under the age of thirty-five; and thinking exactly like my father would have! Several times, the couple asked each other, "Do you love me?" to each other. The pretty girl with a look on her face as if she'd won the greatest prize in all the earth answered, "very much!" I so wanted to grab her and say to her, "Don't you realize you can do much better?!"

I did feel a little guilty about that.

I really didn't know these people. I just had experienced what they looked like, what they acted like, what they seemed like. The girl's looks and demeanor pleased me. Her companion's didn't. I'm not particularly macho or particularly good-looking. I'm overweight. I've got lots of frankly weird traits. You'd think I might have some more sympathy for the messy haired young person sporting the tattoos and ugly ear jewelry. I had none. There's a very strong passage in the New Testament book of James about the sin of "showing partiality" based on superficial matters like how much money one has and/or how one looks. Most pastors preach great sermons from that portion of Scripture, and most are guilty of showing partiality.

Appearance is far more important in our culture than most of us want to admit. Again, I may have been all wrong in my visual assessment of this couple. I felt a little ashamed as I was walking out of the post office.

I have entitled this posting "Shallow or Astute?". I found an online definition of "astute" which reads: "Having or showing an ability to accurately assess situations or people and turn this to one's advantage: 'an astute businessman'." So, what about it? Were my impressions in the post office reasonable? Was I being very shallow? Was I astute? And, what do you suppose Our Lord Jesus Christ would have to say about all of this?