When a family is expecting a new baby, each one speculates about who that baby might be…. for 9 long months. By the time D-day arrives, everybody’s dying of curiosity to find out: Is it a he or she? What color hair, eyes? How big or small? How long or short?

Immediately after the birth, those questions are answered, and we begin the process of getting acquainted with someone new.

Our extended family has started that delightful process this week with the birth of Mary and Bervin’s 10^th grandchild, Harrison Arthur Ytterberg. On Thursday we learned “it” was a boy weighing 8 pounds 9 ounces with light brown hair, blue eyes, and features much like his older brother Beck.

But our guessing continues, and we wonder who is hidden inside that little body. Will Harrison be mild-mannered or tantrum-prone? Will he be a people-person or a loner? Talkative or quiet? Mechanically inclined? A good student? Artistically gifted? Only time will tell.

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Most of us view each new baby as a blank slate and expect good things from him or her. We think the best of every newborn and ascribe no negative traits. So an interesting question is, why can’t we view every new adult acquaintance the same way?

When we’re introduced to an adult we’ve never met, our tendency is to take one look and assume we know all about them, quickly supposing facts that most likely aren’t true. Then, based on our inaccurate assessment, we choose to either show favoritism or partiality. God frowns on this kind of judging.

Still, most of us are prone to peg people based on what we see at first glance. We “size ‘em up” and think we can somehow land on accuracy just by looking. The truth is every person is far more complicated than that. As we get to know someone, little by little we usually find out we were wrong in those first radical jumps to conclusions, and we feel ashamed of ourselves. God is the only completely accurate Judge of who a person is, because he can judge thoroughly, inside and out.

First Chronicles 28:9 says,“The Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought.” As human beings we could never hope to see into someone like that, and yet we act as if we can. It would be better if we’d let God be the only insta-judge, taking a wait-and-see approach to decide what we think.

As we watch little Harrison grow and change, may we never peg him prematurely but wait patiently to see who God has made this brand new person to be.

God does not show favoritism. Acts 10:34