Here you can see some sparkly rocks I have recently discovered in the gravel of my driveway.
It seems the last dump-truck load of gravel we had delivered must have had some crushed geode-type rocks in the mix. Hence, over the last few years, I’ve been coming across the prettiest little pieces of gravel in my driveway!
Recently I’ve been combing and scouring the front gravel parking area in front of our house, looking for any missed nails, screws, or tiny sharp pieces of metal accidentally left behind from the roofing project.
Scouring the area 2-3 times with my eyes resulted in a surprising handful of sharp tiny items.
However, even after scouring the area 2-3 times with my eyes, check out how much was still picked up with the magnetic metal-picker-upper!
Camouflaged amongst the gravel, I completely missed seeing these!
At the same time as I was using the magnetic metal-picker-upper, I also came across so many beautiful little white and sparkly rocks! I was in awe of how varied and unique the composition of rock was!
They were each so beautiful!
God has made each one of us unique and special! (Psalm 139)
God has made each one of us in his own image! God has given us creativity … and giftings … and talents! God has given us the ability to feel emotions! And to express love!
God has put beauty inside each one of us! Just like the amazing beauty inside this geode (which was given to me by my very special little friend up in Alaska)! And also, just like the sparkly beauty which was inside the rocks which wound up crushed and mixed in with my driveway gravel.
But the beauty is hidden … inside our “heart of stone.”
We all start out with “hearts of stone” towards God.
Spiritually speaking, we each start out with a “heart of stone” … no different from the rocks strewn all across Death Valley (as seen in the photos of yesterday’s blog). Our life is spiritually dead.
But Jesus came!
He didn’t have to come. But he did!
Jesus came to our “Death Valley” – our life of barren hard ground and a hard heart of stone!
Jesus came to “break up the hard ground” of our soul, so that our life would no longer be “Death Valley.” But rather, our life could now be fruitful and flourishing!
Jesus came to “break up our hard heart of stone” … and to reveal the beauty of the sparkles hidden inside!
It’s not fun to be “crushed.”
But, spiritually speaking, it takes “crushing” in order to crack through our hard heart of resistance!
It takes “spiritual crushing” in order to crack through our hard heart of pride.
It takes “spiritual crushing” in order to crack through our hard heart of selfishness … and stubbornness.
Jesus does a miracle of cracking through our hard heart – to reveal the beauty that is within!
Jesus, in his teaching (in Matthew 5:13) used the analogy: “You are the salt of the earth.”
We might also say: You are the crushed sparkly rocks, mixed in with the gravel along the roadway of life!
The beauty which God has placed within us is meant to sparkle and shine – in order to point people to Jesus!
It’s meant to be mixed in with the gravel of normal everyday living!
It’s meant to be spread and strewn all throughout the roadway of life!
Because look what else is mixed in amongst the gravel of normal everyday living!
Life is hard! People are sinners! Wrong things happen!
But … also mixed in, here and there … beautiful sparkly little rocks!
A brilliant little white rock which makes you pause mid-stride … and bend down to pick it up. And stand there in awe at how such a pretty little white rock could be mixed in with plain normal ordinary gravel.
Mixed in here and there … a flash of sparkle caught by the sun! It glints! You stop. You bend down. You pick it up! It’s so pretty! So unique! So different!
This right here is what Jesus wants each of our lives to be like!
Our hard heart of stone is no longer just lying there in an empty barren expanse of “Death Valley.”
But rather, our hard heart has had the miracle of Jesus’s touch!
Our hard heart has been cracked open to reveal the sparkles within! And Jesus has mixed the pieces of who we are in with the load of normal everyday gravel … which is then spread all throughout the roadway of life! And those who travel life’s roadway can’t help but see the beauty of God’s sparkle mixed in here and there!
