today i want to share with you a particular favorite of mine thats been sent to me by a friend, its been around the net nor do i know who the author is was, to you whoever you are , thank you ....evertime i read it it makes me reflective and thankful of everything and everyone... hope it too maybe an inspiration to you as it is to me...
(photo courtesy of Mr Ian Pilbeam - thanks!)
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
him, 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.
Lord, Thank you for looking beyond our clay vessels.
