First impressions

First impressions belong to the dynamic of human relationships. They are often wrong or at least mercifully modified over time.

Oh, how I tried to impress my wife, Ione, favorably on our first date. Coming out of a restaurant I slipped on ice, ripping my jacket, skinning my forehead, cutting my lip. Only a forced laugh partially masked my humiliation. Would that be her lasting impression?

Thankfully, God doesn't seem bound by first impressions: Moses — a murderer on the run; Sarah and Abraham — beyond childbearing years; Mary — a young, single, peasant woman; Paul — a persecutor of Jesus' followers; a Samaritan woman at a well — an outsider by virtue of gender, class, homeland. Yet each was drawn by God into the drama of God's salvation story.