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Redeemer Lutheran Church
Redeemer Lutheran Church All Rights Reserved.
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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 though 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 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.
THINK ABOUT IT
A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago.
They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday
night’s dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen
inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew
everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane
in time for their nearly-missed boarding.
ALL BUT ONE!!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings and
experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been
overturned.
He told his buddies to go on without him waved good-bye, told one of them to call his
wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight.
Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.
He was glad he did. The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying,
tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping
for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her; no one stopping and no one
to care for her plight.
The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on
the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of
them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.
When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, ‘Here, please take
this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?’ She nodded through her tears...He
continued on with, ‘I hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly.’
As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him,
“Mister….’ He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued,
“Are you Jesus?’
He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered...then slowly he made his way to catch the
later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: ‘Are you
Jesus?’ Do people mistake you for Jesus? That’s our destiny, is it not? To be so
much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a
world that is blind to His love, life and grace.
If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is
more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It’s actually living the Word
as life unfolds day to day.
You are the apple of His eye though we, too, have been brusied by a fall. He stopped
what He was doing and picked up you and me on a hill called Calvary and paid in full
for our damaged fruit.
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 though 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 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.
THINK ABOUT IT
A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago.
They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday
night’s dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen
inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew
everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane
in time for their nearly-missed boarding.
ALL BUT ONE!!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings and
experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been
overturned.
He told his buddies to go on without him waved good-bye, told one of them to call his
wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight.
Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.
He was glad he did. The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying,
tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping
for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her; no one stopping and no one
to care for her plight.
The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on
the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of
them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.
When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, ‘Here, please take
this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?’ She nodded through her tears...He
continued on with, ‘I hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly.’
As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him,
“Mister….’ He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued,
“Are you Jesus?’
He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered...then slowly he made his way to catch the
later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: ‘Are you
Jesus?’ Do people mistake you for Jesus? That’s our destiny, is it not? To be so
much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a
world that is blind to His love, life and grace.
If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is
more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It’s actually living the Word
as life unfolds day to day.
You are the apple of His eye though we, too, have been brusied by a fall. He stopped
what He was doing and picked up you and me on a hill called Calvary and paid in full
for our damaged fruit.
| Newton, NJ 07860 Map & Directions Phone: 973-383-3945 Fax: 973-383-3954 Email: greatgod@embarqmail.com |
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