The Green Machine

My first car was a 1955 Pontiac station wagon, green and white two-tone. It has two strikes against it. First, it was an ugly ride, hardly a babe magnet or a "statement car." Second, parents hated it, presumably because they thought I would put the back seat down and get their daughters in trouble. The car looked to them like a problem waiting to happen. On the up side, gas was 19¢ a gallon.

 

Both of my strikes had to do with what the car said about me. In both cases, I wanted to scream, "Wait! That's not me!"  To the girls, I wanted to say, "I am really a stud even if my car says otherwise." To the parents, I wanted to say, "Hey, I am really a responsible guy with your daughter's best interest in mind."  Funny how externals said I was both a stud and a dud at the same time. Too bad I could not switch the feelings of the two audiences!

 

People thought they had Jesus figured out. "Oh, he's one of us; Jewish, family, scripturally smart, prophetic, a rabbi." Once Jesus displayed his loyalty to God the Father, they turned. Jesus was judged by externals. At first, he was judged positively, then it reversed and he was judged negatively, so negatively that he had to be silenced. The only ones who looked at the real Jesus were outcasts, people society had labeled "losers," They saw the real person of Jesus from the start.

 

Do you worry about what people think of you? You are in good company, play to your Father. That is all that matters. Do you write off (some) people because of their "exterior?"  Look deeper. Engage them. Is there someone in your life that lives and dies on externals? Help them escape the trap. Be you, the one the Father made. See the "you" God made in others. Both are beautiful. All else will soon be gone, leaving only "you." The "you" that will enter eternity.