Aerosol Sincerity

1 Samuel 16:7

"Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

I was looking at a can of Oust spray today that was labeled "outside scent." Really? I didn't know you could can the smell of freshly mowed grass, roses in bloom, or the fragrance after a rain all in one and stick it in a pressurized can. What it really smells like is the ambiguous cleaner that's used in all public restrooms, but the point is it's supposed to smell like the outside. In all actuality, it's a vague imitation of what someone imagines "outside" smells like.

It made me think, though, how often do we do that in our own lives? We offer people, whether they're strangers or people we're close to, a vague imitation of ourselves rather than the real thing. Or we hold back, and only show part of the real us, because they couldn't possibly deal with the whole, ugly thing. The thing about that is, it's not fair to the other person. Just like I feel cheated when I spray the aerosol can and it doesn't really smell like "outside," I think we cheat people by not revealing the true us.

How about you, do you walk around with aerosol sincerity?