Last summer a new family moved into my neighborhood—a pair of Cooper’s Hawks. Our introduction was when the female swooped down and landed on my balcony railing. We had a tense eye-to-eye stand-off as she dared me to take the meal she clutched in her talons and then she flew away, presumably to her nest somewhere nearby. Because of that first encounter, startling and accompanied by much screeching (on her part, not mine), I’ll admit that I didn’t harbor much goodwill toward the new arrivals. And it seems I wasn’t the only one.
The crows, long-time residents of the area, began their raucous cries early in the morning and spent much of the day in airborne combat with the newcomers. The aerial performances were quite impressive; the screeching and cawing quite irritating. Who did these newcomers think they were involved in a turf war right outside my apartment? They apparently didn’t know how to play well with others. As the summer progressed, my feelings toward these aggressive interlopers plummeted to an all-time low.
Then I heard from a reliable source that I had it all wrong. Yes, the hawks had moved in and were probably nesting, but they weren’t causing the problem. The hawks were merely defending their nests (and probably their food) from the crows that, it seems, have a hankering for the eggs of other birds. That knowledge demanded an immediate 180-degree shift in my attitude toward them. I haven’t seen them for a while so I think they’ve moved on. Either their inner clock said it was time or the reception they received caused them to look for a friendlier place. Now I’m sorry I wasted so much time nurturing a bad attitude toward them based on a wrong first impression.
It’s easy to jump to conclusions, to become convinced that what we know is true because of what we think we see. Don’t confuse me with facts, my mind is made up. And wrong conclusions based on skewed information or distorted feelings lead nowhere good in a hurry. During His time on earth, God’s Son was new to the neighborhood and He knew what it meant to be judged wrongly. John 1:2-3 tells us that Jesus was in the beginning and all things were made by Him, but when He lived in the world, the world didn’t know who He really was (verse 11). Listen to the people after Jesus fed them on the hillside—“He can give us anything we need! Let’s follow Him!” or those lining the streets as Jesus entered Jerusalem—“Hosanna! Blessed is the King who is going to help us set up a new kingdom!” And what about the religious leaders who had an altogether different take on things—“Who does he think he is? The claims he’s making are crazy, blasphemous! He has to die!”
All had flawed or incomplete knowledge of Jesus. They looked at what He was doing or listened to what they thought He was saying but didn’t realize who He was. I thought the hawks were the aggressors in the drama unfolding outside my window until I learned the truth. And the truth about Jesus is that He is God, capable of meeting more than just our physical needs and the only One able to transform us into men and women fit for His heavenly kingdom. Who does He think He is? He is the Word become flesh who dwelt among us, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
What are your thoughts about Jesus? Do they demand a shift in attitude? Don’t spend time harboring an incorrect or incomplete opinion of Jesus. Don’t wait until it’s too late to apologize for a wrong first impression.
