Recently we had a leak in our bathroom which caused minor damage and as a result we are looking for new shelving to go in the bathroom corner next to the bath. My husband, who designed the original shelving because of the awkward shape of the corner, wanted to simply replace the shelf with another of the same kind, but I was reluctant to do that because the conti board used previously had been affected by water. I wanted something tougher and more waterproof (and something which, if I am honest, looked a lot nicer.)
Thus began a seemingly simple task of finding another material for the shelf. We started looking at materials usually used for kitchen worktops since they have (in my opinion) a more elegant finish. Yet as I trawled through samples and traipsed round DIY shops, I discovered that the differences in shelving had far more to do with veneer than substance.
Veneer is a thin decorative covering of fine wood applied to a coarser wood or other material. Whether I chose conti board or laminate worktops, essentially the board itself was made of core CIA chipboard, with a backing of resin impregnated paper and water resistant seals. The ‘finish’ was vastly different, but the actual shelf material wasn’t. And that set me thinking…
Garry sees a shelf as something functional, so he doesn’t really care about what it looks like. As long as the shelf is strong enough to hold whatever is put on it, that’s what counts to an engineer. I, on the other hand, want the shelf to look pretty as well as be functional, and in a bathroom, that meant having a glossy finish that would be easily wiped down when cleaning.
I think I perhaps have the same thinking when it comes to living. Am I more concerned about what my life looks like on the outside (the veneer, the ‘glossy finish’) than I am about what it is made up of on the inside? Do appearances matter to me more than function? And ultimately, am I led astray by appearances so that I am deceived by the superficial, the pretty, the sparkling, regardless of the substance?
Mark 7:1-23 talks of the Pharisees who were offended because Jesus’s disciples apparently did not go through all the ceremonial forms of washing before eating. They were utterly taken up by appearances. Jesus reminded them ‘Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.‘ (Mark 7:15) He said ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles them‘ (Mark 7:20) He was far more concerned with the substance of a person than their veneer (see also Matt 23:1-39).
A veneer can be scratched and spoiled and then the real substance is evident. Our lives may look very spiritual, but when squeezed by life’s circumstances and trials, our true nature will be revealed. We need God’s Spirit to search our hearts and reveal to us what is going on under the surface; we need to be more than people who simply look good.