DON’T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER

WINSDAY WISDOM 217

I received a late-night call from the police. A body was found in the backyard of the missionary house adjacent to our church parking lot. A neighbor had called 911. The person was either drunk or dead. The law enforcement asked me to be there as quickly as possible to ID the person.

What did I feel at that moment? Shock. Apprehension. Worry.

That hot Louisiana August night became unforgettable.

I arrived at the church parking lot within fifteen minutes of the alert. It looked like a crime scene. Police cars, flashing lights, yellow tape barriers, officers with flashlights inspecting the backyard area of the missionary house.

A policeman stopped me to confirm my identity. The officer explained that a neighbor had called the emergency hotline reporting a lifeless body in the darkened backyard next door. Upon investigation, the police startled a young man outside the house. As he sat up, guns were drawn. The suspect was ordered back to the ground where he was handcuffed and questioned.

The police suspected drunkenness or drugs. They inspected the surrounding area for corroborating evidence. They also searched for another body.

I watched from a distance as the police put the arrested man through the field sobriety test. They checked his balance, coordination, and attention span. The officer ordered the handcuffed man to gaze at a moving flashlight, walk a straight line with a turnaround, and stand on one leg.

When the field test was completed, I was escorted to where two police cars faced each other. In the midst of their headlights, a shadowy figure stood in handcuffs, surrounded by several officers. The young man was barefoot, dressed in blue jean overalls with no shirt.

The lead officer asked if I knew this person. As I approached, the shackled young man grinned and spoke, “Hey, Brother.”

The center of suspicious attention was Jim. Jim McCarty was one of my preacher school interns. Oh, my!

Under intense questioning, Jim explained he was lying in the backyard, gazing at the stars, and contemplating the greatness of God’s glory while reciting Bible verses. He was shocked to find his explanation rejected as insanity,

The officers thought this was delusional or drug-induced hallucinations.

I quieted the policemen and freed the handcuffed Jim with a simple statement. “This is Jim. I can assure you that his testimony is absolutely truthful. As strange as it sounds, this is not unusual for him. Jim is different, in a good way.”

The officer responded, ” I would have sworn he was in a dope daze. It only goes to show that you don’t judge a book by its cover.”

Jim was part of our first group of preacher school interns. Each guy was unique and yet similar in his big-hearted love, courageous faith, and God-honoring usefulness to the kingdom. I love them all like sons.

God sent Jim to us by way of a suggestion from my brother who pastored a church in Texas. He had a young man whom he thought could benefit from being in a new environment. Jim had recently dropped out of college for the second or third time. Joe was concerned about Jim’s social development, his aversion to education, and his lack of direction in life. Would we consider taking him under our wings?

Jim arrived in his trademark overalls. He did wear a shirt underneath and, for the church greeting, wore shoes. Jim was a “yes sir, no sir” young man. His slow Texas drawl was noticeable in this Deep South environment. He was polite but slightly socially challenged. He could appear quiet and cautious in his surroundings.

Let me just lay it out there with no intention of alienating anyone. This is just an observation, not a cancel culture comment.

Jim looked and talked like a country boy from Texas. He would definitely not be mistaken for a sophisticated city slicker.

This is not an insult, just a meet-and-greet characterization. His appearance reminded me of Captain Kangaroo’s sidekick, Mr. Green Jeans. Since that childhood TV show would be unfamiliar to most of you, think of Festus (Gunsmoke), Gomer (Mayberry), Jethro (Beverly Hillbillies), Woody (Cheers), Hank (King of the Hill), Darryl, Darryl, and the other Darryl (Newhart).

These television characters were not dumb. Old-fashioned to a fault, they were innocently naïve, out of touch with the bad stuff in this modern world. Most of these characters were noted for being friendly, loyal, and philosophical. Their insightful wisdom usually sounded comedic in its simplicity. Jim fit the part, but it was no act.

Social Development? Jim quickly endeared himself to our church family. He was a regular weekly dinner guest for several families. He mowed lawns and made house repairs for widows which, in return, kept him well-stocked in food. No one in our city ate more desserts than Jim. Pies, cakes, pastries, and cookies. He could have opened a Sweet Shop. Somehow, he retained his lean frame.

Jim ran errands, dug ditches, and put-up fences. He was not afraid of work. He joined the ministries to the homeless and neighborhood outreach. Everyone loved this young man in overalls.

Aversion to Education? Jim was an eager and quick learner. He studied the Bible and asked thoughtful questions. His looks and demeanor were different, but he fit right in with the other preacher interns. Deep thinkers. Sensitive hearts.

My goal for the preacher training school was to deepen their devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ before they embarked on more intense theological studies or careers.

We put them through rigorous reading assignments and challenging discussions. We explored Scripture in-depth. We engaged the young men in ministry to at-risk youth to expand their love for others. Then we tested them.

The tests would cover the latest Biblical book. The interns would need to recall verses and passages and expositional points. These were the best and brightest young men I had been around. The tests were challenging.

Something interesting was revealed during the testing time for the Gospel of John. As the preacher guys recalled Biblical references, Jim’s test recited large passages of the text, word for word. On further investigation, Jim admitted he had memorized the entire book of John, all twenty-one chapters.

I have been to school with all kinds of students. Some were very smart and some were educationally challenged.

Carl did not know which way was right and which was left. He was a very fast running back who scored a lot of touchdowns because this quarterback directionally pointed when I called out the play, Right Twenty-Eight Quick Pitch. Our co-captain, Daryl, was greatly disappointed in his English assignment when he discovered that Shakespeare’s Hamlet was not about football. No, Hamlet is not the same as Helmet…so close and yet so far away.

I also attended college with guys who had perfect college admission scores, but no common sense. One knew Latin and Quantum Physics but failed the basics of etiquette. Another could not organize a dorm function but became our country’s Vice-President.

However, this version of Mr. Green Jeans was the most impressive student I have ever known.

As I continued to quiz Jim, he stated he had memorized the other Biblical books we had studied. At one point, Jim memorized the entire New Testament.

As I got to know Jim better, he revealed why he quit college several times. He would register for the classes, buy the books, and read them all before the first class. When the professor began with an overall introduction and slowly waded through chapter one, it left Jim bored and uninspired.

Jim confessed he saw no reason to continue to go to class to listen to something he had already learned! That certainly bested all my reasons for skipping classes.

Jim read all of the #1 Textbook only to discover he had only begun to mine its truth and treasure. This Book cannot be judged by its cover. It is the Word of God. Its supremacy and sufficiency are unfathomable. Its value and worth are immeasurable.

Life Purpose? The country boy was brilliant. However, the most impressive hidden characteristic was the size of his heart. He was also missionary-minded. He traveled with Charlotte Norman and a church group to Oaxaca, the poorest area of Mexico.

Miss Charlotte was a former Garden Club Society member who gave her heart to Mexico missions, inner-city Porch Church, and women prison ministries. Charlotte’s big heart had a huge impact on Jim.

Jim returned to Oaxaca to spend some extended time helping Victor Castanon with missionary work to the outlying mountainous regions. Victor will someday lead the rejoicing of multitudes of the Mixe Indians gathered around the heavenly throne.

The next time we saw Jim, he was accompanied by his new bride, Maria, Victor’s daughter. Maria is the sweetest, kindest, hardest working young lady anyone could meet. God used Maria to focus Jim on his life’s calling.

Jim came back determined to become a doctor. He and Maria planned to return to Oaxaca to open up a medical clinic in the village, as well as provide assistance to the thousands in the surrounding area without medical care.  

This required Jim to finish his college studies which he did in eighteen months. Then he had two months to study for the medical school entrance test, the MCAT Exam.

The time and the educational challenge seemed impossible, unless you were Mr. Green Jeans with an arrest record for loitering in the backyard gazing at stars.

Jim knocked it out of the park. He finished in the top one percent of all applicants. He could get into any medical school. However, Jim thought it best for him to study medicine in Mexico.

So, Jim passed the medical exam again, only this time in Spanish. Medical education is brutally challenging, even more so in a second language. Jim even attended his classes. Upon the successful completion of his training and intern practice in Mexico. Jim and Maria returned to her hometown where they opened a medical clinic for the poor people of that area.

That Mixe medical clinic was just the book cover. Exploits, dangers, drug cartels, late night medical emergencies, long journeys by burro and on foot, and training preachers are all storybook stuff. They are all written in the heavenly journals.

Jim traveled throughout the mountainous area preaching and doctoring. He once preached one of the best Psalms expositions I have ever heard. I imagine he memorized all of it.

Since those early years, Jim has gained physician certification in the United States. The patients have no idea that this “country doctor” in the big city has one of the most brilliant minds and one of the biggest hearts they will ever encounter. They certainly do not know this doctor was once arrested for stargazing.

There is an old saying, “Do not judge a book by its cover.” It is a metaphorical expression which suggests one should not judge the worth or value of someone or something by its outward appearance alone.

You can’t judge an apple by looking at a tree,

You can’t judge honey by looking at the bee,

You can’t judge a daughter by looking at the mother,

You can’t judge a book by looking at the cover. 

(Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover, sung by Bo Diddly, lyrics by Willie Dixon)

Oh, how often we fail to heed that advice. We look at someone’s outward appearance and quickly form some judgment regarding their character or motives. We check off our social media “like” or “dislike” without listening, without learning, and without loving. That is not how the Lord loves us.

“The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (#1 Textbook).

Judging others is not a spiritual calling. Loving others is our universal challenge.

Whether Jim’s steps lead him over sparsely populated mountainous regions or crowded and bloodied emergency rooms or church parking lots, he will most likely greet you with a smile and a “Hey, Brother!” I can guarantee you he will not judge you by your cover,

Let us all be better at not judging others by first impressions. Misjudgments arise when we focus on the color of someone’s skin, their outward dress, or their dialect.

“We must never forget this as a nation: there are no gradations in the image of God. Every man from a treble-white to a bass-black is significant on God’s keyboard precisely because every man is made in the image of God. One day we will learn that. We will know one day that God made us to live together as brothers and to respect the dignity and worth of every man.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

“The Gospel is the power of God to change water to wine, death to life! The whole story is about Him. We just get to be vessels carrying the divine glory!” (Dr. Jim McCarty)

Join me in the march to love first and love most. We are vessels carrying the glory of love. When we love like Jesus, we discover a glorious and defining truth. If every human being were a book, every book would have the same book cover. It would say, “Made in the image of God.”

Life is not about outward appearances. It is about love and character and integrity and faithfulness. A heart will tell you much more about a person than appearance.

May we all work more on our inner resources than our outward appearances.

May we give greater value and worth to the inner beauty of others.

And may we find some time in our busy lives to gaze at the stars as we contemplate the greatness of God’s glory, goodness, and love to us.