Don’t judge a banana by its peel
Have you ever heard the old adage, don’t judge a book by its cover? The lesson behind that story was that you can’t tell what the inside of the book will look like based on the cover design. Working in the publishing industry, I know this very well. Some books will go through multiple cover changes before they go to print. Sometimes either cover would work, and in many cases they are quite different from version to version.
The other day I had half a banana on my desk. I hesitated to eat it, because I assumed that it was going to be bruised on the inside. You see, the banana on my desk had this big black spot with indentations, along with other smaller bruises. What I found when I peeled back the skin was a beautiful, intact piece of fruit, just waiting to nourish my body. In that instant, I learned a very valuable lesson from God.
1 Corinthians 1:25-29 (Amplified Bible) says:
“[This is] because the nonsense [that has its source in] God is wiser than men, and the weak [that springs] of God is stronger than men. For [simply] consider your own calling, brethren; not many [of you were considered to be] wise by human estimations and standards, not many influential and powerful, not many of high and noble birth. [No] for God selected (deliberately chose) what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and what the world calls weak to shame the strong. And God also selected (deliberately thing) what in the world is low and insignificant and marked and scorned, even the things that are nothing, that He may lay down and reduce to nothing the things that are, So that no mortal man can [have pretense for glorying and] boast in the presence of God.”
There is something completely beautiful to me in the above passage. I love the idea that even though I’m bruised, beaten, ragged, and torn, God can use me! Even though I am the child of a divorce, I went to three different colleges before graduating, I have a really eccentric personality and I once struggled with depression, God can use me! The Lord loves to use people, right where they are in life! God used a carpenter, a fisherman, a tax collector, and women (which in Bible times was more incredible than it is now) to complete his work.
Like my banana, many of us are exhausted from living in the world, but that banana peel is just our body. The prize, our spirit, is safe inside, protected by our loving heavenly Father. We are all familiar with the scripture in 1 Samuel 16:7 (Amplified Bible): “But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or the height of his stature, for I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man see, for man looks at what is before his eyes, but the Lord looks at the heart.” Now, in this Biblical reference, the opposite was happening. Samuel was looking at things that were external when looking at Jesse’s older son, but God didn’t choose the older son of Jesse, but the younger son of Jesse. God chose the son of Jesse that they didn’t even take the time to call from the fields. Talk about feeling insignificant, but God knew him and chose him to be! greatness!
I would like to encourage those of you who are feeling depressed by the circumstances of your life to wake up each day and know that you are chosen, because you are children of the King. Do not live to make your life externally pleasing to men, but live in such a way that your Spirit is pleasing to God. Let your shell take a beating, it’s the fruit inside that’s important!
