Are You Overlooking Clay Balls?

by a dear frined:
Are You Overlooking Clay Balls?

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 ten 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 m ore
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.

I am so blessed by the gems of friendship I have with you. Thank
you for looking beyond my clay vessel.