Judging - The Woman and the Cookies

I heard about a woman who was in an airport waiting area waiting on her plane and was a little hungry and knew she wouldn’t get anything on the plane, so she decided she would go to one of the concessions to get something on which to snack before the plane came. In one of the counters she saw some cookies that looked very good so she purchased several. The clerk put them in a bag and she put the bag in her purse and made her way back to a seat in her waiting area. After situating herself she decided to eat some of her cookies. The sack of cookies was on an empty seat between her and a man who also was evidently flying on the same plane. The woman opened the sack and took out one of her cookies and began to eat it. To her dismay the man in the next seat also took out a cookie and began to eat it. The woman openly took out another cookie and ate it, and the man followed suit. She thought, “Of all the nerve, how rude!” This continued – as she took another cookie and ate it, the man did likewise. She could hardly believe anyone could be so uncouth to eat out of her sack, without even asking or saying a word. The woman took the next to the last cookie and watched in complete disgust as the man took the last cookie and broke it in two. Her plane was called to begin boarding, so she left the empty cookie sack and the man who was looking very pleased and slightly smiling. After getting seated on the plane, she opened her purse for a pen to do some writing – and there was her sack of cookies. After realizing she had so harshly and wrongly judged the man, her shame and embarrassment was overwhelming. “Do not judge and criticize and condemn others, so that you may not be judged and criticized and condemned yourselves. For just as you judge and criticize others, you will be judged and criticized and condemned, and in accordance with the measure you use to deal out to others, it will be dealt out again to you.” (Matt.7:1-2 (Amp.) – part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.) Do not conclude a thing until you know all the facts, but walk in love even when others may seem to be, or are in the wrong. An old Indian proverb says, "Do not judge another until you have walked a mile in their moccasins." By loving in return, even when you seemingly have been wronged, you may win a friend. A judge, in a court of law, makes a decision of guilty or innocent according to all the facts that have been presented to him. A righteous judge, although he knows all the facts that have been presented, may choose to forgive the guilty one of the penalty of his acts – this is called mercy. Every day we stand before the Almighty Judge, who sees and knows the motives of our hearts; and all the facts and truth about our sins, but “if we come to Him repenting and confessing our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all our wrongs,” (I John 1:9). “The Lord is good; His mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting. His faithfulness and truth endure to all generations” (Ps.100:5). O To Be Like You! (Thomas O. Chisholm) O to be like You, Blessed Redeemer, this is my constant longing and prayer; Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures, Jesus, Your perfect likeness to wear. O to be like You, full of compassion, loving, forgiving, tender and kind; Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting, seeking the wandering sinner to find. O to be like You, Blessed Redeemer, pure as You are! Come in Your sweetness, come in Your fullness – Stamp Your own image deep on my heart.