Things Are Not Always What They Seem
A little girl called Karen was having a wander down by the seashore. As she paddled in the pools among the rocks, she suddenly stopped and gasped, “Oh, what lovely stones!” How excited she was as she dipped her hand into the water and grasped a handful of the pebbles, and without even waiting to put her sandals back on again, she ran off to her house.
“Mummy, Mummy!” Karen called, “come and see my lovely stones.” Her mummy, who was in the kitchen at the time, came out into the hall; “Well, Karen,” she said, “what’s this you have today?” (You see, Karan was always bringing her exciting “finds” into the house), So Karen opened her hand. But what a shock she got, boys and girls, for all that she saw there was a handful of dull, dry stones, just like those on the gravel path outside the house.
What a disappointment for Karen. However, her mother took her by the hand down to the seashore again, and as they looked into one of the pools, there, glinting up at them were dozens of lovely, bright, coloured pebbles – reds and blues, greens and mixtures of colours, too. Karen dived her hand into the pool and closed it round a lovely red one. When she had drawn her hand out of the water, her mother said, “Now, show me your red pebble.” But when Karen opened her hand, her stone was no longer the bright glinting thing she had grasped, but it was dull and dry. “Put it back into the water,” said her mummy; and as she did so, the stone began to sparkle and shine again.
“Now then,” said Karen’s mummy, “sit down and I’ll teach you a little lesson you can learn from the pebbles.” And as they both sat by the seashore, Karen’s mummy said to her, “You know, Karen, without God we are like those pebbles when you took them out of the water; our lives are dull, and they are not worth living. But the Bible says that we are to “abide” in Him; that means that we are to live God’s way from day to day. And when we do that, then, we are like those pebbles while they are in the water; our lives are different as we love the Lord and know that He loves us.” Is this not true, boys and girls?