By Danny Minton

One day, while shopping at a local discount store, I went into the cold storage area to pick up some eggs. I usually buy white eggs because they are a little cheaper, but on this day, all they had were brown eggs. The cost was a few cents higher, and the carton made sure to tell me they were from cage-free, grassland-fed hens, but I needed eggs, so I bought the brown ones. I had heard somewhere that brown eggs were supposedly better for you than white ones. 

In the last few months, we’ve had some friends give us fresh eggs from the hens they are raising. The eggs they share aren’t white, but mostly brown. However, mixed in with the brown eggs are some blue ones or some that look a pale shade of green. Some of the eggs even have speckles on the outside. So now I have white, brown, blue, light green, and speckled eggs. Besides that, they come in various sizes and shapes: small, large, extra-large, symmetrical, pointed, and oval. 

The interesting thing about these eggs is that when I crack them open, they all look the same. If I boil them, the yolk is yellow, and the egg whites are clear until cooked, then they turn white. The outside color makes no difference in the inside, with only some variation in how yellow the yolk may appear. I can boil them, fry them, poach them, or cook them any way, and when they are on the plate, ready to eat, you can’t tell what color their shell was originally. Oh, and according to sources, they all have the same nutritional value.

I was thinking that people are like eggs. We are all born looking different on the outside, unless you have identical siblings, and even then, they often have slight differences. However, on the inside, the things that make us who we are are all the same. We all have brains that help us think and reason. We have feelings that bring us joy and pain. We shed tears when a loved one dies. We laugh when something is funny. We get angry when people treat us wrongly. None of this is determined by the color of the shell we wear, called skin. Also hiding inside each of us are feelings that can pop out if not controlled. We have nestled somewhere the feelings of hate, prejudice, and other negative feelings, feelings we were not born with, but somewhere in growing up, we were taught either directly or in subtle ways. 

Rogers and Hammerstein wrote a song in 1949 for the play “South Pacific” entitled “You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught.” Part of the song has these lyrics.

You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear,
You’ve got to be taught from year to year,
It’s got to be drummed in your dear little ear—
You’ve got to be carefully taught!

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid,
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a different shade—
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

A Facebook story that has gone viral features two little boys, Jake and Reddy. The boys wanted to fool their teacher, so Jake decided that he’d get his hair cut short like Reddy’s. They knew when they went to school, the teacher wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. The teacher went along and pretended that she couldn’t tell them apart. Jake is white, and Reddy is black, but to them, they look just alike.

The disciples once asked Jesus a question, and I think His answer may have made them stop and think more deeply, just as it gives us something to think about. “At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:1-4 (NASB)

We are all like eggs with different shells. However, God does not look at the outward appearance, but at a man’s heart, as he told Samuel centuries ago. God has no skin color. God has no nationality. God loves us all, no matter what color we are on the outside, where we live, how much money we have, what tongue we speak, or even if we are a saint or sinner. That’s why we read, “For God so loved THE WORLD that HE GAVE HIS only begotten SON.”

If we are to live like Jesus, if we are to be like God in our manner of life, then we must start by looking at all people through His eyes. We must look beyond the shell and see that beneath there are souls that God loves. In addition, we must stop teaching our children to hate or teach that people are inferior if they are not like them. Teach them to look beyond the outward façade and become colorblind, recognizing that the measure of a man or woman is not by outward appearance, but by how they live. Oh, by the way, did you ever stop to think that the part of the egg we throw away is the shell? The one thing we will leave behind when called to the Lord is this earthly body, a shell that houses the one most important thing all men and women possess: their soul.

Danny Minton, a member of Southern Hills Church of Christ, is a hospital chaplain