This BLOG began it's life as a meditation on my 'Songs Of Faith' radio program on Community Radio 2MaxFM.  You can listen in on this program on Sunday nights at 8pm AEST - using the Community Radio App and searching for 2MaxFM.

Early in my married life I learned the difference between furniture made with veneer wood and furniture made of solid timber.  We bought several items that looked very attractive and that suited the budget of a young family.  But we hadn’t reckoned on how that furniture would stand up to the punishing usage exacted by two very active pre-schoolers.  Putting some timber veneer over chipboard might look nice but it doesn’t cope well with two ‘ankle-biters’ climbing all over it and spilling their drinks on it.  We learned quickly that sometimes it pays to spend a little more on solid timber furniture.  What we replaced it with not only handled well the later additions to the family but also the subsequent stage of grandchildren climbing over the very same furniture their parents had once clambered over.

Of course all this applies not only to furniture either.  Some years ago we were house hunting.  We came across one home that looked as ‘neat as a pin’ – or so the advertisement said anyway.  We soon picked up though that the weather-beaten weather boards of the house had been covered over by a veneer of some sort of synthetic fibre product that was all the rage a generation or more ago.  We presumed that some previous owners had baulked at repainting their timber house and had bought the labour saving veneer to spruce the place up.  The question we were left with was: how much rot is there underneath the veneer?  We gave the place a miss.

All of this came to mind when my wife, Merle, read to our daughter a verse from 1Peter 3:3, “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewellery and fine clothes.  Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.”

How often don’t we see this problem in daily life?  I recall it happening once many years ago in my late teens when I was still single.  An extremely attractive young woman had just started work in the mail room... well-dressed and no efforts were spared when it came to make up.  But then she opened her mouth and revealed what lived within.  Disappointing, to say the least!  Chipboard with a veneer of real timber over it!  The apostle Peter was talking to women and about women.  But, hey, it applies just as much to men, doesn’t it?  There’s that handsome young man who always dresses so smartly... and he’s really into grooming himself so as to present well.  But his talk and his behaviour present a stark contrast.  A house with rotten weatherboard covered with a veneer of synthetic fibre sheets.

It’s no wonder that the average marriage in Australia now only lasts a little over eight years.  Too many people look at the timber veneer and don’t see the chipboard; they see the nice looking sheets of synthetic fibre but are ignorant about the rotten weatherboards underneath.

Okay, time for a disclaimer!  We all like to keep up appearances and we all like to make ourselves look better than we really are.  But that’s precisely why relationships take work... hard work!  And when it comes to that inner beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which God values – that’s even more difficult – especially in a world that is preoccupied with glamour and fashion.

Perhaps the most damning judgment about those who are content with a nice veneer of outward respectability, while neglecting their inner beauty, comes to us from the words that Jesus addressed to the Pharisees.  “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.  In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

Stone the crows...!  Did Jesus really say that!  You bet He did...!  You can read His words in the 23^rd chapter of Matthew’s gospel.

Think about it...!  A veneer of whitewash – a cheap coating of paint – covering a tomb full of dead men’s bones.  That leaves my chipboard timber and rotten weatherboards imagery for dead.  Because you see, the Lord looks on the heart and He wants to see a heart that has been transformed by the love of Christ.

John Westendorp