Shuck: Looking for what’s inside

Have we heard the statement, “You can’t judge a book by its cover?” Of course, we have. As I watched a television show recently, a happening in the movie caused me to reflect on the vast meanings that the cliché could conjure up within our thoughts. A character, Jim, starring in the story, wanted to begin a new business, but his funds were limited. Since Jim was not one to give up, he finally found a building he thought would work. It was an old, plain structure with nothing inside.

I followed closely as his venture progressed, and I wondered how Jim could make the old, dilapidated building into a habitable establishment. It seemed like an impossible goal, and I bit my nails as I saw his persistence. How anything so ugly and gray, with graffiti scattered over the walls, could be turned into something beautiful and useful again was beyond me. I held my breath in disbelief as I watched the process. It wasn’t long, however, before my fears were assuaged. While I assumed the attitude of the doubting Thomas, Jim was busy making his dream come true. Although the building had much to be desired on the outside, its purpose was seeing the light, and the end result was coming into view. There was no comparison in the prior appearance of the inside of the building and the inside of the structure now. I stepped back, in awe and admiration, as I took the tour.

The first improvement was the change in the previous hideous wall décor. It was now fitting for the new restaurant to enter. Rather than seeing the shabbiness and emptiness of the former inside space, I saw pretty red and white gingham tablecloths spread over the new tables and chair bottoms. My eyes were drawn toward the cute, cozy-looking curtains hanging over the transformed windows. Rather than looking drab and depressing, the space had taken on a new face. An upscale restaurant had been formed inside the enclosure, and it overflowed with fun- filled laughter. How could this have happened, I wondered? Then I pondered the truth of the situation and realized that we, truly, can’t tell what is hidden underneath anything or anyone by what we see on the outside. Although my judgment was an outward visual one, I immediately saw the similarity between an unseemly-looking structure with no future and the inner workings of people. How often do we judge people strictly by what we view on the outside of him/her? It is so easy for us to create an opinion of someone by his/her atrocious behavior and form an opinion that they are unsavory through and through. We can also take the opposite stance and judge someone as being perfect. Regardless of how we perceive a person, both viewpoints are based on outside appearances and actions.

Rather than knowing what is inside another, our judgments are based on only what we see on the outside. Those who maintain glaring faults and dour personalities are often shunned because we are unable to look into the interior state of the heart — at what lies hidden inside them. We, too, can go from a deteriorated state of wrong and failure into one of success and motivation. In spite of what impressions we reflect on the outside, we, ourselves, know what we are inside. We are what we, ourselves, can love. If we are willing to alter our outside demeanor to match the goodness inside, we will be able to show our true selves. We can then admit to being alike, both on the inside and outside. The ugliness that we hide can come out from its hiding place and exhibit that of a beautiful person of beauty and goodness — and become the person of which others can proudly judge affirmatively.

We’re able to turn our present demeanor of evident dishonesty, hypocrisy and deception inside into one that outwardly shows what we are and that matches our book with its cover of value.

1 Samuel 16:7 says, “But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.”

Ellen Shuck holds degrees in psychology, religious education and spiritual direction. She is the author of the book, “Wisdom for the Journey.”