One of the symbols for modern day Israel is the prickly pear cactus, rough and sharp on the outside, but softer on the inside. I learned one of the reasons for the analogy on my very first day. My brother Paul lives in Jerusalem, where most people find it easier to take cabs than to drive. Jerusalem drivers make Tijuana drivers look like a careful, six year old girl pulling her red wagon.

Anyway, Paul took a cab to meet me at the airport in Tel Aviv, which meant we were going to need another cab to return to Jerusalem. He hailed a cab right away, but an older gentleman pushed in front of us and started paying the cabbie.

“Hey, Mister!” my brother shouted. “Excuse me, but weren’t we here first?”

The man muttered something unintelligible and seemed very unconcerned about our plight.

Paul continued. “We were here first, weren’t we?”

“Call a policeman,” the spunky fellow said. Then he got into the cab and rode off with the sunset.

After we hailed a second cab more successfully, Paul talked on the way home about the prickly pear Israelis. “They can be ruder than New Yorkers, and yet, if these same people saw somebody lying on the street injured, they would be there in a second offering help even at the cost of their own lives.”

I found this rather interesting. As Christians, we often place an over emphasis on manners or countenance. What about that person with a rough exterior, who inside is a marshmallow at heart?   Perhaps we should be a little less quick to judge. After all, God must have had some purpose in creating the prickly pear.

Share this on