Earthen Vessels
A man was exploring some 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 up some clay 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, to pass the time, he would
throw the clay 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 a similar treasure.
He found hundreds 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 hundreds of dollars in treasure, he
could have taken home thousands, but he just threw it 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'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 by God.
There is a treasure in each and every one of us. The Bible
says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. I don't think he
means just our physical bodies. I think he means 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 Father to show you that person the way He sees
them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant
gem begins to shine forth
“And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that
day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a
man spareth his own son that serveth him.” -Malachi 3:17
Author unknown. If anyone has a proprietary interest in this story please authenticate and I will be happy to credit, or remove, as the circumstances dictate.
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