Appearances
As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich
putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in
two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you,”
he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the
others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of
her poverty put in all she had to live on.” – Luke 21:1-4
It’s all about appearances, isn’t it? We log on to
Facebook and post all the pretty stuff, ignoring the heartaches and
disappointments and failures. It’s the same at church. We clean ourselves up,
paste on a smile and tell everyone how wonderful our lives are right now. We
don’t mention the child that is lying and skipping school and hanging with the
wrong crowd. We don’t talk about the possibility of a job layoff or our marital
struggles. We don’t want people to know the ugliness of our lives.
Our churches, those buildings filled with people
playing nice, aren’t always what they seem. There are squabbles and financial
issues and politics galore. We smile warmly and greet visitors, praying they
won’t feel the tension or be put off by the preacher’s message. We tell each
other it’s all about Jesus but in our hearts we “know” it’s all about the
numbers.
Studies show that people are staying away from
churches at an alarming rate. We think it’s because we aren’t “nice” enough or “polished”
enough. Maybe the true answer is that we aren’t real enough.
The widow Jesus spoke about gave all she could. Because
of where the offering box was located, everyone knew how much she gave. Don’t
you know that there were many who watched her and scoffed arrogantly at her
meager offering? They judged her by their circumstances rather than taking a
moment to look at her heart.
Jesus looks at your heart. He looks at mine too. He
sees the flaws, the failures, the issues that linger just beneath the surface.
He draws us to Him and tells us to do the same with others. It’s what so many of
our churches are missing. They focus on appearances but totally miss the heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment