“Do you want this one?” the checkout cashier asked, pointing to the banana’s blackened skin.
But having tested its firmness, I paid up and later found that it was fine to eat.
Clean skins can cover squishy bananas, just as ugly skins can hide firm ones.
Like the old proverb says, ‘You can’t judge a book by its cover’.
Only partially referring to reading enjoyment, this proverb runs deeper to advise against relying solely on first impressions or superficial factors when we face big decisions.
Yet these factors are now rooted in human history, provoking countless wars and feeding distrust, prejudice and segregation within and between nations, races and cultures.
Prejudice is an international illness, but Hollywood has highlighted American examples in some memorable movies and TV series that are set either side of the 1860s Civil War.
And it is less than 70 years since segregation was broken, so black entertainers could freely enter the same foyers as the audiences who had paid to be entertained by them.
Prejudice creates major regrets from minor details, but God’s grace expands our view.
Our appearance may vary from dazzling to disheveled, but God reveals who we are on the inside – just like peeled bananas – with our problems and our potential in full view.
Unfortunately, many preachers or self-styled prophets focus on the problems, while lobbyists play blame games – to overlook the reality of God’s heartfelt offer to redeem and renew us.
This offer does not ignore the consequences of what goes wrong.
But even then, his grace will intrude on the consequences to offer us new hope; shown most clearly when Jesus assured a terrified thug dying beside him that they would be together forever in paradise.
Which means that none of us is beyond God’s reach.
Noel Mitaxa
On behalf of a church near you
