I remember reading a story once about a man who was exploring some cavesby the seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunchof hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled up some clay andleft them out in the sun to bake. They didn't look like much, but theyintrigued the man so he took the bag out of the cave with him.As he strolled along the beach, to pass the time, he would throw theclay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could throw.
He thought little about it until he dropped one of the 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 asimilar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the20 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 ofthe clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Insteadof thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have had tens ofthousands, but he just threw it all away.
You know sometimes, it's like that with people. We look at someone,maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn'tlook like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling,so we discount it; we see that person as less important than someonemore 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 hidden in every one of us. We are wonderfully made. Not just our physical bodies, our spiritual selves,which are sometimes hidden from others by the *earthen vessel*, but if you take the time to get to know that person, and if you ask the Spirit to show you that person the way He sees them, then the claybegins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.
The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindlysmile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspirationthat comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in himand is willing to trust him with his friendship.
He thought little about it until he dropped one of the 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 asimilar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the20 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 ofthe clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Insteadof thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have had tens ofthousands, but he just threw it all away.
You know sometimes, it's like that with people. We look at someone,maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn'tlook like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling,so we discount it; we see that person as less important than someonemore 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 hidden in every one of us. We are wonderfully made. Not just our physical bodies, our spiritual selves,which are sometimes hidden from others by the *earthen vessel*, but if you take the time to get to know that person, and if you ask the Spirit to show you that person the way He sees them, then the claybegins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.
The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindlysmile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspirationthat comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in himand is willing to trust him with his friendship.
4 comments:
That was truely a masterpiece. I really enjoyed reading this. I also believe that the real person is actually inside you, waiting to be discovered. The outer impression is nothing but a artificial protrayal. To know a person it is really necessary to break his shell.
This post should be an inspiration to all the bloggers...well done chumki, and keep it up.
hmm ! enjoyed reading it :)
Lovely piece!!!but somehow i feel that we love to look outward not within...perhaps thats the reson why we never understand ourselves!it's a real pity!
darun likhecho nabanitadidi(da)!!
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