When I was sixteen years old, my mother sat me down at our kitchen table to have a talk. I had been making big plans to put together a birthday party for my boyfriend. I explained I would like to rent a hall and order food… and mom said for me to have a seat.
I plopped down in a well-worn kitchen chair crammed against a table that was wedged in a tiny kitchen. My mom made direct eye contact with me and made the crazy statement that we couldn’t “afford” what I was planning. I looked at her dumbfounded. Several of my friends had planned this kind of gathering so my question was obvious and totally teen.
“Why not?”
“Because Bev we are not rich. “
She proceeded to explain that we didn’t have that kind of money. My mind tried to process this new information. I went to school with rich kids, I thought we lived in a nice neighborhood, I had clothes and my own room. I proceeded with a comment that brought my mom both to tears and laughter.
“Are you sure mom? Because I feel rich.”
Perceptions. We don’t always get them right. In fact I’m pretty sure we are almost never 100% on target. I suspect that is why God told us not to judge. Our perceptions are off. Even with people and situations we know well … our own view is not omniscient. After all who could have known my situation better than me at sixteen? I was living right there.
Why didn’t I pick up on the fact that to get around the kitchen table it had to be shoved against the wall and all chairs in or we couldn’t open the refrigerator? We had hand me down furniture from good friends (which my mom hated – the furniture not the friends). I got practical Christmas presents and gave them as well. My mom once picked up a package from under the tree and asked if it was stockings – could she open them because she needed them for work.
In a day and age where most moms were home, I was a latchkey kid. I started dinner in the cast iron skillet most days after school. When there were gift exchange days at school, the present I brought always cost the exact minimum. We never ate out. I was not allowed to open the refrigerator because it cost too much electric. In reality, I think our food was bought exactly to last for meals. Our entertainment was television, the Sunday “funnies” and sometimes a ride with a stop at the store for a carton of ice cream. Saturday nights were “stew”. Not the good stuff with chunks of meat and veggies in a rich sauce, but the leftovers from the week in a weak watery liquid.
Yet with all these facts surrounding me, somehow, I came to the conclusion that we were rich. My mom, in an effort, to help me understand she wasn’t being mean, but my request was simply unreasonable given our circumstances, had to make the tough call to burst my bubble and give me a realistic understanding of our place in the economy.
It wasn’t my first perception in life that was off, nor have I had my last. So, when God talks to us about “taking the plank out of our own eye and then we will see clearly to take the speck from our brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5) He knows what He is talking about.
God doesn’t want us judging or condemning others because we don’t have the capacity. Even the well-meaning Christians who hit others over the head with their sins, citing verses … we were meant to use those verses to clear our own eyes of planks.
Remember Jesus and the woman brought to Him caught in the very act of adultery (John 8:1-11). Those who wanted to condemn her quoted the right scripture, the evidence was indisputable and yet Jesus did not condemn her. He suggested anyone without sin could throw the first stone. No one did. They left from the oldest to the youngest.
If my perception is ever that I can cast a stone at another human being, my perception is off. Way off. If I am cherry picking verses for any cause… my perception is off. We need the whole word of God to understand spiritual truth. Psalm 12:6 tells us “…the words of the Lord are flawless”.
The judgment of the Lord is perfect. As He watches the people of earth, His perceptions are without error. The love of the Lord is boundless. The mercy of the Lord is unimaginable.
Headed back to my plank. Have a great week.
Love, Bev