Clay Balls
Clay Balls
A man was exploring caves by the Seashore.
In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay
balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the
sun to bake. They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so
he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach,
he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as
he could.
He thought little about it, until he
dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock . Inside was
a beautiful, precious stone!
Excited, the man started breaking open the
remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found
thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had
left.
Then it struck him. He had been on the
beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with
their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of
dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he
had just thrown it away!
It's like that with people. We look at
someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It
doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or
sparkling, so we discount it.
We see that person as less important than
someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we have
not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.
There is a treasure in each and every one
of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God
to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel
away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.
May we not come to the end of our lives and
find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the
gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as
God sees them.
I am so blessed by the gems of friendship I
have with the friends I have found here at StrokeNet. Thank you for looking beyond my clay vessel.
APPRECIATE EVERY SINGLE
THING YOU HAVE, ESPECIALLY YOUR FRIENDS!
LIFE IS TOO SHORT AND FRIENDS ARE TOO FEW!
Do not ask the Lord to Guide your Footsteps
if you are not willing to MOVE your Feet.
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