and unpleasant packaging can contain something beautiful.
Many of us can agree that what we see on the outside- the packaging- can sometimes be very different from what's inside. Our mistakes in life often stem from accepting things at face value and foolishly believing that appearances accurately represent what's inside. Unfortunately, we live in a world where honesty has been replaced with dishonesty. Experience has taught us a valuable lesson: look before we leap.
Please remember, not everything that glitters is gold.
Carefully examine anything that seems like a fresh start: a great deal, a new relationship, a job offer, or anything else. Your responsibility is to do thorough research, ask questions, and focus on substance rather than appearance. In the end, you'll have to deal with the substance, not the temporary, attractive packaging.
Beware of Sheep's Clothing
Jesus warned His disciples that deceptive packaging is not a modern problem. It has always existed:
"Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" (Matthew 7:15-16)
Jesus gave us a principle that, if followed, will allow us to recognize content over packaging: fruit does not lie. The fruit of anything is a telltale sign not only of its contents, but of what actually produced it. An apple can only come from an apple tree. The fruit is simply the evidence of what tree produced it, regardless of how the tree was decorated.
The Lord Looks at the Heart
Man judges by packaging because packaging is all man can see at first glance. God does not operate that way:
"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)
This is the discernment we are called to grow into. It is unnatural to look past a beautiful package and ask what is actually inside it. Our flesh wants to trust what looks good. But if God judges by the heart and not the wrapping, then the mature believer must learn to do the same, in relationships, in opportunities, and in the people we let close to us.
Why Experience Teaches What Warnings Cannot
I don't know who you are, but you must understand this. Your decision to follow the packaging will force you to deal with unnecessary content. Unfortunately, most folks tolerate the undesired content, hoping they'll be exposed to the packaging again rather than the truth they already uncovered.
Warnings can inform you, but experience is what convinces you. This is why the same mistake often has to cost us something before we finally believe it was a mistake. Scripture describes this pattern plainly:
"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." (Proverbs 14:12)
"The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looketh well to his going." (Proverbs 14:15)
Notice that the prudent man is not smarter than the simple man by nature. He simply looks well to his going. He has learned, likely through experience, to slow down and examine before he commits. That skill is rarely taught in a lecture. It is usually earned through a disappointment we did not see coming.
My mother repeatedly told me, "A little can tell you what a lot will be like." A small sample of someone's character, a small inconsistency in someone's story, a small red flag in an opportunity, is rarely isolated. It is usually a preview, not an exception.
Test the Fruit, Not the Wrapper
Scripture instructs us not to accept everything simply because it looks or sounds good:
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." (1 Thessalonians 5:21)
Proving something takes time, patience, and observation. It means watching what a person, opportunity, or relationship consistently produces over time, rather than what it promises in the moment. Packaging is a snapshot. Fruit is a pattern. A pattern cannot be faked forever.
My words of wisdom to you on this beautiful morning: focus on the fruit produced by that person, place, or thing. Fruit is the result of a seed. What someone consistently produces reveals who they really are and warns you that their packaging is a mere distraction from their contents.
Experience will always be one of the best teachers you'll ever have. The only choice you have is whether you learn its lessons the easy way, through Scripture and the wisdom of others who paid the price before you, or the hard way, by unwrapping the package yourself.
~Kevin L A Ewing~
ewinglakevin@icloud.com
kevinlaewing.blogspot.com
www.kevinlaewing.com
