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In my email last night

mixed media

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.



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Comments

Janet said…
A truly beautiful thought.

I feel that in some ways blogs let us be known for who we really are and not immediately judged by our looks, or our possessions.

Anyone can blog, and we get to know the person's mind and what is inside them. If we choose to show our photo we can but there's no rule that says we have to. I like that.

We have no color, no age, no level of wealth, nothing to pidgeon-hole us unless we choose to reveal those things about ourselves. And we can still reveal our true selves with our words.
Cyndi L said…
We're only "jars of clay" in this life! I really have nothing to offer other than what comes from deep within me :-)
Betzie said…
I loved reading this too Cyndi, and Janet, I so agree!
It's wonderful to have creative outlets that let us express ourselves.
Every time I visit here, I feel like I find a treasure, whether it's a photo, a story, or something inspiring...thanks Cyndi! Keep up the great blogging. Not even sure how I got linked to here, but am glad I did!
Hope to share something I make with you one of these days...although I seem to be more in the collecting mode, than creating right now!
Betzie
Cyndi L said…
LOL!! Hunter-gatherer mode can be so much fun...but I have a hard time knowing when to STOP!

Betzie, I'm really glad you found your way here too :-) I look forward to seeing what you make.