Looking Good On The Inside

As you know, my wife teaches in a pre-school and once in a while children use bad language. When this happens, I have heard her tell the child that if they should do that again, she would have to wash their mouth with soap and water! You and I know that in a literal sense that is not a fix to the problem. Similarly for you and me, soap and water will not fix the problems that we have on the inside. What comes out is a result of what is within and the only way to clean out the mess inside is to allow Jesus to occupy those sinful spaces of our lives.

Quite often like the Pharisees there are also times when we too are quick to "size up" people or make a judgement on someone based on how they might look on the outside. All that glitters is not gold and at the same time all that does not glitter is not garbage. I would like to leave you with a story told by a Lady who lived across the street from John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore tells where she tells of how an old and ugly Fisherman had an inner beauty that brought great joy and happiness to her family.

The lady and her family lived downstairs and rented some rooms upstairs to out-patients of the hospital.

One summer evening as she was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. She opened it to see a truly awful looking man who was hardly taller than her eight-year-old. His face was red and raw and seemed swollen and lopsided. Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, "Good evening. I’ve come to see if you’ve a room for just one night. I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there’s no bus till morning." He said he’d been hunting for a room since noon but with no success, because no one seemed to have a room.

"I guess it’s my face...” he said, “I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments it would be better"

For a moment the lady hesitated, but his next words convinced her. "I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the morning." The lady asked that he rest on the porch while she found him a bed. When supper was ready, the old man was invited to join the family.

"No thank you. I have plenty" he said holding up a brown paper bag. When she had finished the dishes, she went out on the porch to talk with him a few minutes. It didn’t take long time to see that this old man had an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body. He told her he fished for a living to support his daughter, her five children, and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury.

He didn’t tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was prefaced with a thanks to God for a blessing. He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer. He thanked God for giving him the strength to keep going. He said the Lord was the captain of his life and the Master of his soul.

At bedtime, the lady put a camp cot in the children’s room for him. When she awoke in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded and the little man was out on the porch. He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said, "Could I please come back and stay the next time I have a treatment? I won’t put you out a bit. I can sleep fine in a chair." He paused a moment and then added, "Your children made me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children don’t seem to mind."