First Look

What do we see when we take a first look at something? Do we notice the shape, the color, or some other outward attribute? We live in such a fast paced world and as a society we have allowed ourselves to fall into a pattern of making assessments based on our first look. We read a headline and form an opinion. We call it people watching but we are usually doing more than just observing. We often interpret what we think we are seeing. That person looks frumpy so they must not care about what people think. In fact they may have just finished a hard day of work. Another person may look very fancy and professional so we see them as important, a person of influence. Another example is a person who is considered overweight is thought to be lazy. On and on it goes, our first look can impact so much. This doesn’t touch on judgments based on race, nationality, or other external things.

With that in mind let’s sit back and think about how and why we do this. When we do this what do we do with this so called information we gain from these first looks. Sadly we often form opinions, judgements, and assumptions that have no bearing in reality. These can do a great deal of damage and create divisions in our family, our friends, communities and nation! We are seeing the evil fruit of this type of first look. Anger, rage and hatred are spilling onto our streets. How do we change this?

What if we changed what we thought when we took our first look? What if we saw first and foremost what each person was designed to be, a child of God. Every human, whether they have a relationship with Jesus at present or not, were designed and born to be a dearly loved child of God. What if instead of looking at things that divide us we looked at the one thing that from the foundation of time was meant to unite us? What if our first look was followed by the prayer “Lord please show me what you love about this person?” My how our world would change!

What will you see when you take a first look?