Outward Appearances

Over the weekend a huge thunderstorm with strong winds, heavy rain and lightning hit our community. After the storm passed, I ventured out to take photos and found about a third of a large cottonwood tree crashed into the entryway of a duplex. Although shaken, no one in the house was injured. The renter, who was surveying the damage, invited me to look into the center of the other two-thirds of the tree that was still standing. The tree, which had a circumference of more than 8 feet, looked normal and healthy on the outside, but it was completely hollow on the inside all the way down to the ground. Jesus warns us about outward appearances. He said, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness” (Matt 23:27-28 NIV).