Geode - beauty hidden inside the ordinary
A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one he found a canvas bag containing what appeared to be many hardened clay balls. It was as though someone had rolled clay balls, baked them in the sun, and gathered them in the bag. Intrigued, he took the bag with him.
Strolling along the shore, he idly threw the balls, one at a time, as far as he could into the ocean. He thought little about it, until one of them dropped on a rock and split open at his feet. Inside was a beautiful, precious jewel!
Amazed, the man carefully began cracking open the remaining balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of gems in the 20 or so clay balls he had left. He realized he had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of these balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have had tens of thousand; but he had not seen their worth!
It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It may look uninteresting, worn, dull. If it isn't beautiful or sparkling, we probably discount it. Unfortunately, we consider that person less important than someone whose shape or clothes or fame catches our attention.
We may never know the value hidden within. There are treasures in each of us. If we take the time to get to know people, and especially if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to split away and the brilliant gem appears.
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. Let’s make the effort to see the people in our world, including ourselves, as God knows them.
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