A Thought to Ponder
with Rev. Robert Wise

 Who Was That?

One Sunday morning a gentleman and his wife had just moved into town and decided to visit one of the local Churches.  This particular couple made it a point to not dress real fancy, just plain clothes that anyone could afford when they visited the local Churches.  When they arrived they were greeted by only a couple people who hurriedly said, “Hi, good to see you”.  Well the couple found a seat and sat through the service only to discover that on their way out, no-one took the time to say anything to them. It was heard after the service that many of the parishioners were asking each other, “who was that couple?”  No-one seemed to know the answer.

Now in that particular town there were five different Churches so the couple decided to visit each of them once a week to check them out.  By the end of the fifth week, the couple had made their decision.  They picked number 3, where quite a few people greeted them as they arrived and a number of people thanked them for coming and even invited them back.  They even had a visit from the Preacher and 2 of the couples who attended church number 3.  The couple had enjoyed the people and decided to continue on with number 3 church to see what the preaching was like and decided they would stay there.

The other people of the town were mightily surprised about a year later when Church number 3 which was a very poor Church and very much in need of a useable larger space, but yet had a very vibrant outreach program within the community decided to build a new Church building on some land just on the edge of town.  Many wondered how this was possibly as the people in town knew how poor Church number 3 was and how in the world could they afford to build a new building when before they only had a rented couple of rooms in the local community hall.  The answer was the retired man and wife couple who just happened to be very wealthy and had been looking for just such a Church where people lived more like Jesus than like earthlings (as they like to call people).

The moral:  It’s true, you never know a book by its cover.  The majority of the people in the other 4 Churches had made a judgment decision on what the couple looked like instead of getting to know them personally and learning about them.  Those 4 churches were not nearly as concerned about the couple as souls as they were with outwardly appearances.

The money is not the important part of this story…… the living like Jesus wants us to live is the real part.

Ask Yourself:  How many times have you rejected getting to know someone just because they do not meet your particular set of standards instead of the standards Jesus  would want?