First impressions

The football team from the school which two of our grandsons, Max and Ben, attend here in Leicester recently reached the final of a local schools football competition.  The extra exciting element of their achievement was that the final was to be played at the King Power Stadium, home to Leicester City F.C.  Sue and I were delighted to be able to attend the match.

Considering that the children who were playing were still relatively young, I was impressed by the level of skill and commitment on show.  In the first half, one particular player stood out as very pacy and skilful.  The player had long blond hair, some of it tied up in a bob, and was smaller in stature than many of the others; their pace and skill more than made up for the lack of height.  My initial thought as I watched this player was how great it was that a girl was allowed to play in a mainly boys team, and that she more than matched most of her male teammates and opponents.  As the games progressed, however, it became clear that the player was in fact not a she but a he!  First impressions are often misleading.

I was reminded of this fact again this morning as I took part in a local parkrun.  The parkrun scheme organises free, weekly, timed 5k runs in this and many other countries.  Today was only my second parkrun (and I beat the time I achieve on the previous occasion!)  As the 500 or so people at my local parkrun gathered for the start, I looked round at the other runners.  In my mind I began to weigh up my chances of running faster than some of the others.  Most of those gathered looked fitter than me, but there were a few who, perhaps due to their apparent age or obvious girth, I thought might finish further down the field than me.

Clearly my first impressions of some of the other runners were way off the mark.  A number of people who seemed older or who carried more weight found no difficulty in overtaking me.  A couple of men were pushing their children in buggies and sped past me.  One girl who must have only been about eight years old didn't have any difficulty in keeping ahead of me.  Once again, I was reminded of the old warning not to judge a book by its cover.

Yet we tend to do so very easily, don't we - judging people on how they appear.  It's just as well that God doesn't judge us on outward appearances.  On one occasion God said to the prophet Samuel, 'I do not judge as people judge. They look at the outward appearance, but I look at the heart' (1 Samuel 16.7).  A reminder to us all not to trust first impressions or judge by outward appearances.  Sometimes people are very different from what they may first appear!

In the eye of the beholder

When is a weed not a weed?  In the past couple of weeks I have seen two of my neighbours attempting to scrape away the weeds which have been appearing between the paving blocks in their front drives.  I made the comment to one neighbour that weeding is a never-ending job.  She agreed, commenting that she had spent a long time attempting to remove all the dandelions from her back garden. 

The dandelion is generally regarded as a perennial weed that spreads very easily from from seed and roots.  In the past, I have been eager to remove dandelions from the garden as quickly as possible.  In more recent years, however, I have come to appreciate the dandelion as a beautiful flower in its own right.  To see a field of brightly coloured dandelions is a beautiful sight.

Not only that, but I was recently reminded of the several potential health benefits of the dandelion:

• Dandelions are highly nutritious; from root to flower, dandelion are highly nutritious plants, loaded with vitamins, minerals and fibre.

• Dandelion are full of potent antioxidants, which are molecules that help neutralize or prevent the negative effects of free radicals in one’s body.

• There is some suggestion that dandelions could be used in a whole range of other potential health benefits, including to help fight inflammation, aid blood sugar control, reduce cholesterol, reduce blood pressure, promote a healthy liver, aid weight loss, fight cancer etc. (if you want to read more see here).

This humble little plant, thought worthless and disregarded by many, has more to it than is first thought.  I am happy when I see dandelions in my garden (in ‘reasonable’ numbers!)  They are a reminder of the old saying about beauty being in the eye of the beholder.  Jesus used the illustration of ‘the flowers of the field' in his teaching.  The dandelion can certainly teach us how beauty can be seen in the apparently unwanted.  Jesus himself was roundly condemned by the religious leaders for associating himself with the disregarded of his society.  The religious leaders saw no value in such people, but Jesus treated them with dignity and compassion.  In God’s eyes, all are precious (even you and me!)