Published: August 26, 2008 02:29 pm         

The danger of snap judgments

Two decades ago a new couple visited our church at the request of their former pastor. David and Erin Nurse were just a wee bit nervous because they were biracial: He was African-American, and she was Caucasian.

We had their family over for dinner and became good friends, thanks to the commonalities that cemented our relationship: faith, a fondness for basketball and our children were the same ages. Whereas we had two girls, they had two sons, and as fate would have it, within the next year they would add a third son and we would add a third daughter.

David worked as a cameraman for the local ABC affiliate and his job brought them to town. One of the side benefits occurred when the Lakers and the Supersonics visited for a preseason game. David invited me to be on the floor with him and handle the long cable that was attached to his camera. As it turned out, he didn’t need much help; it was just an excuse for me to be on the floor with him, watching some of the great players in the NBA.

Our friends’ names popped into my head last week when the synchronized swimming at the Beijing Olympics was televised. Synchronized swimming is similar to ballet dancing, except the athletes perform a variety of moves in a pool of water. It’s synchronized in that two swimmers try to harmonize their appearance and routine in and out of the water.

During dinner, Erin announced that she had been in the Olympic trials for synchronized swimming in 1980. At the time, she was eight months pregnant. Taking one look at her temporary size, I blurted out: “No way!”

Erin jumped up from our dining room table, opened our sliding glass door to the backyard, removed her shoes and dove into our pool! For the next several minutes, this new, but very pregnant friend showed us her stuff, leaving us speechless. She did things in our pool that we couldn’t do on dry land.

Eventually, we had to help Erin out of the water because it was an above ground pool (she had jumped four feet off the ground to dive in). Then, for the rest of our evening together, she sat in wet clothes and I sat with a proverbial egg on my face.

When God was searching for a new king, Samuel was sent to the house of Jesse. One by one, his sons paraded before the prophet. When Samuel saw David he must have thought, “No way!” God, however, chose him in spite of his appearance because God “…looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7, NIV), not our outward appearance.

Whenever I see synchronized swimming I think of Erin Nurse, my ill-advised comment and the beautiful routine she performed in our little pool while eight months pregnant. I also remember what my sister Teresa, a mother of five children, once said: “Pregnancy lasts nine months; bald is forever.”

Tony Thomas is a church pastor, a high school basketball coach and author of “A Smidgeon of Religion.” He can be reached through the newspaper at ptnews@pharostribune.com