A man was exploring  caves by the seashore.  In one  of the
cave she 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
or60 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.