Precious Stones

We spend so much of our time and energy in acquiring possessions because we believe that they will make us accepted or secure or happy. There seems always to be something new which we must have. And, of course, we discard the previous versions or stack them away in closets and garages until the next rummage sale. We upgrade constantly, but are we any happier? If there is a God and a heaven, then all that we work so hard to gain here in this life is but vanity, for it will pass away. I recently heard a story in which a rich man died and someone posed the question, "How much did he leave?" The answer, of course, was "all of it." Investments in the kingdom of God and in other people are the only investments that have any chance of being permanent. However, in order to spend our assets thusly, there must always be some kind of sacrifice in the here and now. In the end, all that we gain here, all that we have stacked around us to adorn our lives, will amount to nothing but a pile of rocks. It takes great wisdom to discern what has real value, but how much richer our lives may be if we discover the high road of a happiness that transcends our possessions.

Pebbles
I watched a little girl
Sitting on the beach today
Sorting through the stones and pebbles
Which she kept or tossed away
To me, they all looked worthless
Yet, her childish eyes could see
A value hidden in them
Which, somehow, eluded me
For out of countless thousands
She chose a special few
Based on shape or size or texture
Or some unusual hue
Proclaiming they were priceless
That she must have them for her own
She found value, even beauty
Where I saw only cold, grey stone
Tomorrow they'd be stones once more
Which she would cast away
To be polished by the ocean
And found again another day
And it occurs that she's no different
Than most grownups I have known
Who spend their lives pursuing
What they consider precious stone
Which they pile up in heaps
Around their children and their wives
With the goal that all their treasure
Would bring value to their lives
Until, one day, they wake up
And discover, to their shock
That what they spent their lives on
Amounts to but a pile of rock
When we search for things of value
We must choose most carefully
So we only keep the real gems
And toss the pebbles back in the sea

By Frank Carpenter ©