Clay Balls

[Darling SilverDodger]

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 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 each of you.
Thank you for looking beyond my clay vessel.

Pass this on to another
CLAY BALL

[bams68]

This reminds me of a poetry piece I had written a few years ago, mine dealt with life and how many people tend to be followers and not leaders. How they stand in the sand getting burnt by the hot hot sand. While watching others (the leaders) playing and laughing in the cool cool waves in the ocean of life.

Thanks for sharing that piece with us.....

Ur Deer Friend
bams

[kayna]

that is so true