Three perfectly beautiful apples, the red delicious kind, perched right in the middle of a stack at the grocery store. Hubby looked them over very carefully, making certain that there were no bruises or worm holes among his three prized apples. He came away pleased; delicious apple salad was on his mind.

Since this is one of the salads in which he takes pride [it’s a family tradition], he was the one to cut into the first plump red apple. Centered in its core was great disappointment: brown rot. How surprising! He studied the outside again…confused…then tossed the bad apple away.  Then he washed the second one. As he cut into the second apple, he found the same rotten mush. Puzzled, he persistently cut into one more apple. The lone apple had remained fresh and fragrant, so it was saved to be a delicious addition to our breakfast oatmeal.

The first two apples’ interior did not match their exterior. In fact, the exterior posed as being that which would be representative of God’s design. Jesus became quite displeased over a tree that bore no fruit at all. In fact its root took the greatest blow.  In Genesis, it is written that every seed would bear fruit of its kind; therefore, its design was divinely planned. Jesus also warned against ‘false prophets–‘ [Matthew 7:15-20] those whose “fruit” pretended to be as one thing but acted as another. He had names for them too.

I Samuel 16:7: “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord look on the heart.” From good trees He expects good fruit.

In Psalm 19:12, David prayed that God would cleanse him of hidden sins–the ones hidden from his own view–yet the ones remaining in plain view for others to see.

The appearance of three red apples can be misleading. It’s the view into the inner core that we learn of its true content. Wonder what happened to ruin those two, very pretty apples with the dark rot within. Did one rotting apple affect the other? How did the one good apple survive and produce pleasing fruit?