Clay balls

Keith Hayward has sent this piece.
Something to think about.

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 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.

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

APPRECIATE EVERY SINGLE THING YOU HAVE, ESPECIALLY YOUR FRIENDS!

LIFE IS TOO SHORT AND FRIENDS ARE TOO FEW!