A Book’s Cover

As the age old saying goes: Don’t judge a book by its cover.

We all know it. We all believe it. Yet we all are guilty of it again and again.

My mom had seen the red dress in the window of the store all the way back in February. That was 6 months ago. She wanted it then. So it was no surprise that she hollered for me to pull over as I sped by the dress shop.

I maneuvered the rental mini van into its parking spot. Yes I did say mini van.

I was driving a mini van of the worst kind.  It was a dodge mini van. I begged the guy at the counter for an economy car at the same price, but, he reminded me, a deal is a deal. And didn’t I read the fine print on the internet deal, he wanted to know? So a mini van it would be as I swallowed my pride, put on really big sunglasses and hat, and left the airport with enough flare to scare a rug rat.

But I digress. The dress looked so pretty and gleaming in the window. I could hear my mother salivate. I’ve wanted that dress for 6 months, she reminded me. We walked into the store like we owned it and found the red piece of material all the way in the back by the clearance rack.

And then we stared, befuddled. That couldn’t be the same dress we saw in the window of the store? We checked again. It was. The problem is that up close and in person the dress looked more like a cheap sundress than the beautiful fabric that gleamed in the window.

I know that every person reading this blog has experienced that same sinking feeling. You buy the gadget, take it home, only to realize that it doesn’t do half the stuff you thought it would. Or you ogle a guy for months until he finally asks you out and you suddenly understand why a guy this good looking is still single.

You know exactly what I’m talking about.

And it’s awful.

The flipside of this is true as well. You finally meet that woman you knew you could never like, and 10 years later, she’s still your bff. Or you finally walk into that church at the corner, and you have to admit that those Christian people aren’t as creepy as you thought they were going to be.

You can make up examples of your own, but I think you get the point.

Don’t judge a book by its cover. You’ve got to read it to know what it says. Then you’ve got to give it a chance to explain itself. Then you’ve got to give it time to prove itself.

And then, and only then, be wise enough and kind enough to judge rightly.

And that’s the thought for the day.

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