I have had this proven to me several times and I still struggle with the
truth of it and people.

   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 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 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.

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