Balls of Clay

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 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. May we see the people in our world as
God sees them. Author unknown

Many "threw away" Jesus in His time too. They were expecting a King and
they got a Carpenter. Don't throw away the pot of clay before you for we
all are in the Potter's hands. We are all being shaped and trimmed by the
Master Potter.(Jeremiah 18:6) Learn to love with the love of Christ and
just see what riches you will find!