The mischievous elf

A woman about my age had a child out of wedlock when she was 19. (Does anyone even use the expression "out of wedlock" anymore?) The baby was adopted and the woman hasn't shared the experience with many people over the years. Not long ago some of her church members learned of it, and there have been hurtful developments.

I was thinking about how ironic that is. The act that results in the conception of a child is a single occurrence, a momentary passion, soon over and done. There are many of us who have harbored secret sins over a period of years that were far worse, but that no one ever learned about because they did not issue any tangible evidence (unless you want to call a series of failed relationships, various addictions, and miserable children tangible evidence).

I would say that in 2011 I know almost as many people with children out of wedlock as those with children in wedlock, so it puzzles me a bit that there is a flap over this revelation. (I suppose it is partly the surprise of having to suddenly revise one's mental history of a person one thought one knew better.) But the fact that there is a flap over it just goes to show how screwed up the world's judgment is.

As a Christian counselor once told me, it is as if there was a curio shop, and in the middle of the night a mischievous elf snuck in and switched around all the price tags so that all the cheap stuff was marked up and all the valuable pieces were discounted.

Like Jesus said:

"Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment" (John 7:24).