They said it was a salak fruit, but it looked more like a cross between a bullet and a porcupine. How would one actually attack this prickly cluster of pods? We hesitantly asked the lady at the fruit stall to open one for us. She tore one loose from the cluster and broke away the brittle skin. Inside, it looked somewhat like a miniature brain—two smooth, white hemispheres. She handed it to Don. He examined it and cautiously bit into it, then offered it to me. To me, it tasted a bit like citrus and a bit like jackfruit. We bought the cluster to take home.

As I mused about the salak fruit, I thought how this is like some situations we encounter. They appear to be very prickly—not something we want to get involved in at all. Yet, when we crack away the covering, we find something positive inside, something that has promise. Sometimes they actually bring great blessings.

People and cultures can be like salak fruit, too. When we first encounter a new culture and its people, it is easy to focus on aspects that seem “wrong” or “stupid” because they are different from what we know. That is why our Lord instructed us not to jump to judgment. We can ask God to reveal to us the positive characteristics of a person or a culture. We just see the outside, but God knows what’s inside.

“The Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).

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