The peaches tumbled off the conveyer belt as it slowly rotated. Leila’s white hair betrayed her age, but she worked energetically beside the younger workers while they deftly picked through the rolling peaches. Three or four went into the fancy box on the right, then one to the bushel on the left.
That bushel was filling up with the peaches that were second best. Some were too small, some had brown marks, and some were an odd shape. They could not go in the high-priced box destined for the grocery store.
As Leila looked over the peaches, she could not see the inside; she was only judging the outside. The peaches going into the box looked perfect. Were they as good inside or were they brown, woody and tasteless?
Her hands worked as she talked. “I came to the Lord when I was twelve years old. That’s when I asked Him to forgive me, to cleanse me inside from all my sin. That is the most important thing in life. It’s not what you see on the outside. It’s whether or not God has washed clean the inside.”
A Bible verse came to my mind: “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:77But 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. (1 Samuel 16:7)). God sees behind our smiling faces and fine clothes. He sees the heartaches, the ulcers that eat at the conscience, even the desires for Himself. He also knows all our sins, our disobedience and lies. He isn’t fooled by the exterior.
Of course, the Bible gives His analysis of the human heart. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:99The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)).
This is the very reason why Jesus Christ came. We couldn’t save ourselves, so He came to do what we could not do. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “He was wounded for our transgressions [sins], He was bruised for our iniquities...and with His stripes we are healed.” John records it this way: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son [cleanses] us from all sin” (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)).
Yes, as we tumble along in life, people sort us out by what they see on the outside. God looks at the inside and He knows if I have ever called on Him to cleanse me. Have you done this?
I picked up a discarded peach. It had a little bump and a one inch brown scar where it had rubbed on the branch. I bit into it. Ah, just right. The inside was fine.
That’s what really counts.