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| The Clay Balls
compliments of everychildfirst.com A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened balls of clay. 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 threw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could, just to see the splash. 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 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 can be like that with people sometimes. We look at someone, maybe a child, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. Maybe it doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it. Maybe they are angry, or hard to get along with. Maybe we see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or smart or well known or wealthy. But maybe we just have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside, and we’re only looking at the clay ball. There is a treasure in each one of us. If we take the time to get to know the people in our lives, 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. Don’t forget, there is also a treasure inside the person you see in the mirror each day. My wish for you is that you not come to the end of your life and find that you have thrown away a fortune in relationships because the gems were hidden inside a little clay. May we all see the people in our world as God sees them. Pass this on to another CLAY BALL! |