Packaging Is Everything?

Bam! She’s got a body like an hourglass, but is that sand coming out of her ears and mouth? She is gorgeous with and without makeup and can sang! But my oh my she gossips like nobody’s business. She’s so charming and walks and moves as smoothly as a cobra sways. Oh, and she bites like one too. Can you say “venom”?

Oh my goodness look at the ceps on that bi. What a marvelous hunk of flesh he is. But he can’t read or tell time. Bummer. Look at that Italian Black Stallion walking by like Denzel Washington. My bad, he’s a dog? But why do all the girls (and guys) still want to ride him?

Packaging is everything?

He wears thick glasses and plaid shirts, white socks with black shoes. He’s the top of his class? And a first class gentleman, opens doors for ladies no matter who they are? Maybe I should give him my number. J She’s chunky around the midsection and a little dark and her hair is kinda nappy. Wow, she’s a writer and a counselor who loves people? But you would never know by looking at her. As Gomer Pyle would say “Surprise, surprise, surprise!” Hmmmm.

Packaging is everything?

He has no ears, but he can sing? He has no arms or legs yet he’s a minister, counselor and motivational speaker? They’re African American and have no rhythm? You have three degrees and have no job? What gives? Or doesn’t give?

Packaging is everything?

Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been disclosed? For [the Servant of God] grew up before Him like a tender plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He has no form or comeliness [royal, kingly pomp], that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.

He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him.

This guy doesn’t fit “The 100 Most Handsome Men of the 21^st Century”. But Packaging is Everything?

Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.

Can’t judge a book by its cover or a wine by its bottle. But packaging is everything?

All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his (and her) own way: and the Lord has made to light upon Him the guilt and iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, [yet when] He was afflicted, He was submissive and opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.

Sounds like a patient in a mental ward. Hmmm. But packaging is everything?

By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who among them considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living [stricken to His death] for the transgression of my [Isaiah’s] people, to whom the stroke was due?

And they assigned Him a grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.

But packaging is everything?

He came into the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him [did not know Him].

He came to that which belonged to Him [to His own-His domain, creation, things, world], and they who were His own did not receive Him and did not welcome Him.

Welcome Home . . .!!! Packaging is Everything?

But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in , and rely on) His name –

Who owe their birth neither to bloods nor to the will of the flesh [that of physical impulse] nor to the will of man [that of a natural father], but to God. [They are born of God!]

Now we can say it with feeling: Welcome Home Jesus!! Packaging is everything?

And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son received from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth.

Sometimes we miss our blessings because of the packaging they come in. We’re expecting it to look one way and thus we don’t recognize it when it arrives and so we reject it (or him, or her, or HIM). (But it’s because of what’s inside of us, not the one in the package.) Hmmmm. So yes in a way packaging is everything in this culture and society in which we live. Yes we should put our best foot forward in all we do and say and in how we present ourselves, but we must make sure it’s our “true” foot and not just a social prosthesis, mirage, i.e. a lie. For guess what? All boxes get opened. The wrappings and bows get removed and what’s inside gets revealed.

Then on the other hand, in our society we concentrate so much on the packaging that we pay little attention to the contents, and believe because we’re “beautiful” in some way that people can experience with their five senses, that we will be desirable to the world. But this is a lie. Chocolate melts. Ice does too and what gets left behind? Well, with too much chocolate probably an abundance of sugar calories on ones thighs and behind, and with ice, well, just possibly your thirst gets quenched. But truly what gets left behind? (No pun intended, but this is a good place to chuckle.) Anyhoooo . . .

Many of us lie to ourselves when we look in the mirror because we’re only looking at the outside. We dress well at all times and make sure our hairs are on straight, and we tell ourselves we’re okay. But this is how we will know how, and what we feel and think about ourselves: When we hit the pavement and come in contact with others, what do we say about THEM? Herein is the clue to what you believe about you-yourself, for we only give what we have in our soup bowl, our cup, on our plate. What we feed to others is what we’re eating ourselves. So, if you’re with someone who is constantly making fun of others, revealing secrets, gossiping, always have to be the bell or belle of the ball, etc. (can you say “noise maker?”) then you need to make a decision. You either need to ask that person “why do you feel so negatively about yourself?” OR you need to distance yourself from that person because you don’t want to share what he or she is eating. It is not good for you.

True dat, you met him or her in a good looking or sounding or smelling or tasting or feeling box (situation) – maybe at a concert, or a party, or a church gathering, or the post office, or at work, but now you realize that all the goodness was only in the packaging. Sometimes you have to discard the whole kit and caboodle.

Now I’m not saying that we “throw people away”, but what I am saying is . . . hmmmm we need to pay attention to how much attention we put into big things in small packages or small things in large packages. Some things/investments cannot be recuperated once they are lost like time, emotions and other valuable resources.

What about good, better and the best things which come in packages we would not envision? What do we do with them? The verses above from Isaiah and John's Gospel [Amplified Bible] describe a man who was misunderstood, judged and rejected because of the package He came in. He was born into a family, to what our culture would call a “single mother” since the earthly father was not His biological father. He was not handsome. His hair was wooly, not long and straight and blond, neither did he have blue eyes. His skin was not white and creamy but brown and ruddy. Even though He was a King, He did not live and act like a king. He worked a nine-to-five job with his dad as a carpenter so his hands were ruddy and he was often covered with dust. He knew more about the law and the prophets than the law and the prophets, yet he had no earthly proof of his education, so just who did He think He was, having the audacity to read from the Torah in the synagogue and then teach others older and more educated than Himself? What right did He have in giving so much love to others, being moved with compassion to the depth that they could touch His clothing and be healed with just a tiny mustard-seed size faith? Who gave Him the right to forgive sins when only God could do that? Who “died” and made Him God? And let’s not talk about raising more than one person from the dead. Please give us a break! God doesn’t look like this man, yet He does what only God can do (and desires to do).

You don’t look like what people want you to look like either do you? Have you ever been rejected because your skin is too dark or too light? Your hair is too long or not straight enough? You’re American and not another nationality, or another nationality and not another nationality? J You’re male and not female or you’re female and not male? You’re tall or short, wealthy or a hard-worker who can’t make ends meet, have a car or not? Over qualified or under qualified? What is your packaging? How are you wrapped? Are you wrapped too tight(LY) or not at all? What are you made of inside? What’s inside your cup? Are you worth the packaging you’re in? Would it be worth someone’s while to unwrap you and see you for what you really are? If yes, then kudos to you. But if no, what can you do to make yourself a better wrapped package, a gift worth God’s giving and worth receiving? What will make you a gift worth having and not just a pretty package?

Jesus came and gave His life in every way. He placed something valuable in each of us, but in order for us to manifest that gift truthfully, we must not reject Him for it is only He Who can bring us to our full potential as the gifts we are meant to be in, and to this world, for the glory of God. The real gift is inside the package.

Peace.