A Book & It's Cover

There is an old saying, "Don't judge a book by it's cover." It means, don't just look at the cover of a book and judge whether you like it or not, but actually read and judge it by it's content, by the story. The reality is, we judge don't just books by their cover, but we judge CD's, movies and even people by their appearance every day.

I love to read. I have made it my goal, every year, to read at least 10 books. Lately they've been non-fiction, topical books. But I also like to read sci-fi, adventure, fantasy; I love it all. My favorite fiction book is a book called Ender's Game. It's funny how it became my favorite book. High school students have an assignment over the Summer, they have to choose 4 books from a list the school gives them, to read and do a book report on. One year when I was in high school Ender's Game happened to be on the list. It was a book I had never heard of. I only chose it because it was a sci-fi book. As I read it I really got into the story and the characters and what was going on. The author does a great job of painting a picture and telling a story.

Now, looking at the cover, you might not think much of it. I didn't. If I had just seen this book at the library or at Barns & Nobel (or as Pastor Steve calls it "The Nobel"), I wouldn't have even picked it up to look at. It looks too sci-fi for my liking. I only read it because I had to. But I liked it. If I had judged this book by looking at it's cover, I'd have missed out on reading what is now my favorite book.

This week, at Crash we'll be looking at 1 Samuel 16, when David was anointed by Samuel to be the new king. Samuel, who was like us, had thought that one of David's 7 older brothers would be the king that God would choose. Samuel was like us, judging people by how they looked. God had to keep reminding him that man judges by the outward appearance, but the LORD judges by the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). All junior high students are welcome to join us this Wednesday as we look closer at this passage and ask ourselves, how we judge people.