Why is it so much easier to jump to conclusions (and very often WRONG conclusions) about people than to assume the best about them? There’s a story about a man sitting in his living   room one evening when he suddenly called to his wife — “There goes that woman Charlie Brown is in love with.” His wife, who was in the kitchen, dropped a dish she was drying, bolted through the door into the living room, tripped on a rug, knocked over a lamp, and craned her neck as she looked out the window. “Where, where?” she cried. “There,” her husband replied, “that woman on the corner.” The wife hissed, “You nut, that’s his wife.” Her husband replied, “Of course. Who were you expecting?” Solomon’s words in Proverbs 18:17 have warned readers for some 3,000 years that, “The first one to plead his cause seems right, Until his neighbor comes and examines him.” It would be a healthy thing for all of us to remember a few things about ourselves before we “jump to conclusions.” First, the average adult human brain weighs about 3.3 pounds. Next, that adult brain fits inside a skull that, on average, has been determined to be about 6-7 inches wide, 8-9 inches long, and 21-23 inches around. And those eyes of ours, which can see outward from here to the moon (about a 180,000 miles), and even to the sun (about 93 million miles) and beyond — those eyes, magnificent as they are — cannot see one millimeter below the skin of another person to what is going on in their heart and mind! Compare all of that to the God who understands our thoughts afar off and who is acquainted with all our ways (Psalm 139:2-3); the God whose greatness is unsearchable (Psalm 147:3), and whose understanding is infinite (Psalm 147:5) and unsearchable (Isaiah 40:28). He is the omniscient God who scans our souls “and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12); the one from Whom “there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13). The living God not only sees and knows what people do, but He knows and sees why they do it. You don’t. It’s healthy to remember that before you jump to conclusions.
An incident in the life of the apostle Paul recorded in Acts 28 reminds us how people sometimes jump to conclusions based on outward appearance. Paul and others are shipwrecked on the island of Malta after a horrific storm. They had been welcomed by the natives, but it was cold and raining. That’s where verses 3-6 take up the story — “But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. So when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, ‘No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live.’ But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm. However, they were expecting that he would swell up or suddenly fall down dead. But after they had looked for a long time and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.” Paul was neither a murderer nor a god. But the incident reminds us how easy it is to misjudge people and situations and reach wrong conclusions. Benjamin Franklin knew the human tendency to misjudge, and he urged, “To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.” I’m glad God didn’t jump to conclusions about us as sinners, aren’t you? Think about it.