To take things only on their surface appearance without investigating the whole picture can be deceiving. Appearances can important but it’s not just how something looks that tells us about it. More important is what’s inside…what it’s made up of. Recently we’ve seen a gigantic volcanic ash cloud disrupting air travel in Europe…and really disrupting world travel. This cloud reminds us of the importance of not looking only at what something appears to be before making a decision. If pilots had taken the ash cloud as just another cloud or plume of smoke and flew through it, it would be dangerous and had life threatening consequences. Similar to situations in life you must always ask yourself, what something you are facing is made of? How will it affect your life? You may have problems later in life because of things that didn’t seem like a big deal at the time but that turned out on further inspection to be more complicated that they appeared at first glance.

John 7:24, “Stop judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment.”

Isaiah 1:18, “’Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord…”

This is where discernment comes in. As scripture says, make a right judgment and use sound reasoning. It’s important to look at all the things going on in your life and invite God into those decisions along with reasoning, the gift He gave you, to help guide you through them.

Don’t judge by appearances only as they are often deceiving. Instead be patient, curious, diligent, and wise in decision making – look at the whole picture.