I happen to like pretty polished pebbles. The other day I looked out my apartment window and thought I saw one, mostly buried in the dirt beneath the bushes. But why would one be there? Two days later I noticed it again and decided to see if it really was a polished stone. It was! And I found a second stone as well. I took them inside, cleaned them off, sooner or later expecting to display them artistically.
Today when I went for my walk, on a whim I thought I’d look for more polished pebbles. Returning to the spot outside my window I discovered three more! No doubt, I realized, sometime in the past they had fallen from an apartment balcony above mine. I took the new ones, which I’d had to pry out of the soil, to a parking lot puddle and cleaned them off a bit.
Resuming my walk, I soon wandered past the dumpsters. Someone had thrown out a couch, a mattress, and a rug, and none to soon by the looks of them. No pretty stones there. Then upon turning around I happened to look at the ground near the fence that hid the compactor from view. Lo and behold, there among the roots of the bushes awaiting the spring to return, I saw pretty polished pebbles everywhere.
Now I have a score of pretty pebbles in a jar on my counter. Perhaps this is a trivial example of following the words of Jesus,to “seek and you will find.” But the deeper lesson comes from accepting that Jesus was not speaking metaphorically when he said it. I did seek, and I did find. Anyone can do it.
PRAYER: Our Lord and Savior, we thank you for the clarity of the wisdom you have given us in the scriptures. Help us to seek it out, to recognize it, and most of all, grant us the courage to act on it. We pray this in your holy name, Amen.
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Authored by: Jeffery D. Kooistra
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