Judging the Cover
Don't hold those at a distance whom you've never chanced to meet
From what's found on the cover the first time you chance to greet
From something you've been told of them or something that you see
Assuming without knowing them they can't be family
Don't hold at length that person who might be your dearest friend
If given opportunity their own name to defend
Whom others may have slandered by the stories they have told
Effecting your opinion as they shape you to their mold
For many are the stories that we all might want to hide
That have revealed our defects in the times that we've been tried
That may not complement us in the way we want to be
When others tell those stories as they hope that folks will see
Our faults in such a manner that will turn all eyes from them
And how they've let the devil make them so much more like him
Than like the precious Saviour Who transforms us from our past
When we accept forgiveness and upon Him our lives cast
For many are the failings we experience in life
And how we let them mold us is what tells us if this strife
Is being God's own chisel for perfecting of our souls
Or more a tool of Satan's for achieving his dark goals
Of leading to division when God wants our unity
To make us strong together to defeat the enemy
As we in oneness draw together by God's grace in us
Who've learned to emulate His love and place in Him our trust
So if you've been that person who's been slandered and maligned
Who feels there is no one to trust no one in whom to find
A heart that gives acceptance until it has time to see
The truth of what God's made you in your own diversity
Be that to all the others who like you are set aside
By faith let God reveal through you His grace you have inside
That does not read the cover til the story has been told
By reading for yourself that book of life you're asked to hold
And maybe if you're lucky you might find that person who
Is just that perfect person who completes that perfect you
That God has been perfecting by His working in your past That forms a bond of friendship that He knows will ever last 2 Corinthians 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 12
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