Kendalalley’s Blog

I normally am horrible to skip the forwarded messages I get as emails… sorry… I mean, some of them are cute and I know that most people who send them to me actually do weed out the bad ones and only send me the good ones- but I normally just don’t have the time. I certainly don’t have the time to read them now- but my brain is triggered to notice the word “clay” because of the significance that word has had in my spiritual life.

At the crucial time of a young lady’s life during my teen years I found great comfort in the Jeremiah passage of how God is the Potter and I am the clay- so I need to stop my complaining and let him mold me into the person He wanted me to be… that verse had a profound effect on the teenager that I was. Later, as a young college student who was not at peace with her career choices and strongly, strongly convicted with a call into the ministry but felt no hope for getting out of this life that had been established for years as a musician- Another verse had a profound affect which was the 2 Corinthians passage about how we are earth clay vessels with a treasure inside which needs to be shared with all… When reading this verse… the conviction to go into the ministry became stronger- then Pastor Mike spoke on it, then it came on the radio, and finally at a mission trip to Gulfport, Mississippi it was used as a theme for the mission trip- the overwhelment of the Holy Spirit moving in my life became too great- and here I am today!

SO- you can see why “clay” sticks out to my eyes… and I got this email from my dear friend Beth… and I knew I needed to stop and make the time to read this forwarded email. It did not dissapoint. The power of God’s word is alive… are you noticing it in your own life?

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 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.

I am so blessed by the gems of friendship I have with you. Thank you for looking beyond my clay vessel. Pass this on to another Clay Ball!!!