The LORD does not look at the things man looks at.
Man looks at the outward appearance,
but the LORD looks at the heart."
1 Samuel 16:7
Yesterday my daughter made a remark about my new next-door neighbor - a single man (from all appearances) somewhere in my age range. I met him weeks ago on the day his house closed, and he seemed rather friendly and nice - good qualities in a neighbor. Since that day, however, he has never acknowledged my presence when we are both outside at the same time.
I said to my daughter, "He has not turned out to be a very friendly sort." "You're kidding," she said. "He waves to me every time we are both in our backyards, and we've had a couple of good conversations." "Well," that's good to hear," I replied, " because he does not wave or speak to me." "Maybe he didn't see you," she said, "or was thinking about something else." Whatever.
Ten minutes later, I walked out the front door to go to work. Low and behold, who should be out in his yard but the neighbor. He looked up, grinned, gave a big wave, yelled, "Hey, neighbor!" and started walking toward my house. I almost laughed out loud! Talk about making a liar out of me! He told me all about the fence that a workman had put up and then taken right back down six days later (I had been dying of curiosity on that score). He warned me that the place would be swarming with roofers in the next couple of days, then invited me to come inside and see what he and a hired workman were doing with the interior of the house (the previous owners and their huge pit bull had pretty much trashed the place). It was in worse shape than I had imagined, and I do not envy him his "fixer-upper" project.
As I got into my car to drive to work, I chuckled - not at him, but at myself. My view of the man that I expressed to my daughter was borne out of my own insecurities rather than anything that he did or did not do. I need to shelve my useless assumptions and give the man a chance to be exactly what I hope he will be - a good neighbor.
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