I spent my entire last day as a 12 year old at our place in Gatlinburg watching series after series of America's Best Places to Find Cash and Treasure. I was literally obsessed with the show, so much so that I even turned down having a water gun fight in the hot-tub with my siblings because I couldn't miss an episode.
There I sat in front of the TV with my spiral notebook and pencil, taking detailed notes of the sites across the country where precious items were lost but never recovered, money was buried but never reclaimed, and pieces of history were hidden but never rediscovered. Every time the narrator would say something along the lines of "nobody knows 'how' or 'why' or 'where'," I would get goosebumps and immediately envision myself in the moment of solving the mystery or finding the treasure.
The day eventually passed and I must have fallen asleep dreaming about adventure. Morning quickly came, and my dad woke me up very, very early.
"Happy Birthday, Sweetie. Get up, we gotta get going!"
I asked 'where?', but he wouldn't tell.
The three-hour long car ride felt even longer considering I had no idea when we would get to wherever Dad was taking us. Needless to say I perked up a bit when I saw a road-sign welcoming us into North Carolina.
That was when Dad finally revealed the big surprise. He had gotten a hold of my notebooks from yesterday and, in reading through them, noticed that one of the places I documented was in drive-able distance. He took us to the Sheffield Mine, a "real deal, genuine, ruby and sapphire mine" located in Cowee Valley outside of Franklin.
We spent the day there mining for "squeakers and honkers" (their lingo for gems). Don't think for a second that that was an easy job! It took about two hours to go through just one bucket of dirt! You put a handful of dirt at a time into the tray and sift it through the water running down what I can best describe looked like an open, wooden pipeline system. After the mud washed away, you hoped to find a ruby or sapphire left in the tray.
Most of what remained was tiny rocks or limestone (aka nothing important). The administrators were very clear in their instructions to us that we shouldn't get disappointed if we went through the entire bucket and ended up with no gems at all. The buckets of dirt came directly from the nearby mine, so there was no guarantee that you would "strike it rich" with every bucket (but you were guaranteed fun!).
The dirt got all over our clothing and our hands grew tired from sifting, but with every new handful, our hopes for finding a gemstone were restored and the other things didn't matter so much.
At the end of the day, it was Mom who had the most luck. She had a squeaker in her bucket! The ruby was NOTHING like what I expected it to look like! It was small, hexagonal, dirty, and really really ugly. I thought the workers there were kidding around when they affirmed that the rock was, indeed a ruby.
The rest of us went home with our bags of practically microscopic gems, but we were just as satisfied. During the car ride back to Gatlinburg, Mom decided that she was going to have the ruby cut, refined and made into a necklace for me as my birthday gift and as a keepsake of our fun day. There was a shop outside of Gatlinburg that did the job, and we picked up my ruby necklace just before heading home to Ohio.
The ruby necklace was breathtaking! I couldn't believe that underneath the dirty, ugly outside of that rock was a beautiful, pure gemstone.
In many ways, we are like that, too. Maybe we think we are ugly on the outiside-- body too fat, skin too bumpy, teeth too crooked. Or maybe we make decisions that give us an ugly appearance-- stealing, lying, cheating.
Being human, we sin. Sin is ugly and dirty to God. But thankfully, God does not throw us out based on whether or not we look valuable. Little by little, He washes away the dirt knowing fully well that underneath our muddy surface is a beautiful, beloved gemstone. Cleaning us up is no easy process, but he doesn't care how long it takes or how tired his hands are. He does it because we are worth it to Him.
Undoubtedly, we disappoint. I know I certainly was frustrated mining handful after handful and not finding any gemstones. Yet, as I mentioned before, with every new handful, I had a renewed spirit of excitement and hope. Even when He washes us clean, we still sin against Him, which dirties us up again. But God willingly and happily keeps mining. He takes another handful of love, another cup of His water and another bucket of "us." Sometimes it takes an entire bucket, right down to the very last handful, before we see ourselves as the precious gem God views us to be. In fact, God says we are even "MORE PRECIOUS THAN JEWELS!" (Proverbs 3:15)
Here is what else God says about us..
Instead, beauty should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. 1 Peter 4-5
All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you. Song of Songs 4:7
I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made! Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. Psalm 139:14
The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at his heart. 1 Samuel 16:7b
Remember, God sees you for the value of your heart! You are beautiful!
-Rachel
There I sat in front of the TV with my spiral notebook and pencil, taking detailed notes of the sites across the country where precious items were lost but never recovered, money was buried but never reclaimed, and pieces of history were hidden but never rediscovered. Every time the narrator would say something along the lines of "nobody knows 'how' or 'why' or 'where'," I would get goosebumps and immediately envision myself in the moment of solving the mystery or finding the treasure.
The day eventually passed and I must have fallen asleep dreaming about adventure. Morning quickly came, and my dad woke me up very, very early.
"Happy Birthday, Sweetie. Get up, we gotta get going!"
I asked 'where?', but he wouldn't tell.
The three-hour long car ride felt even longer considering I had no idea when we would get to wherever Dad was taking us. Needless to say I perked up a bit when I saw a road-sign welcoming us into North Carolina.
That was when Dad finally revealed the big surprise. He had gotten a hold of my notebooks from yesterday and, in reading through them, noticed that one of the places I documented was in drive-able distance. He took us to the Sheffield Mine, a "real deal, genuine, ruby and sapphire mine" located in Cowee Valley outside of Franklin.
Most of what remained was tiny rocks or limestone (aka nothing important). The administrators were very clear in their instructions to us that we shouldn't get disappointed if we went through the entire bucket and ended up with no gems at all. The buckets of dirt came directly from the nearby mine, so there was no guarantee that you would "strike it rich" with every bucket (but you were guaranteed fun!).
The dirt got all over our clothing and our hands grew tired from sifting, but with every new handful, our hopes for finding a gemstone were restored and the other things didn't matter so much.
At the end of the day, it was Mom who had the most luck. She had a squeaker in her bucket! The ruby was NOTHING like what I expected it to look like! It was small, hexagonal, dirty, and really really ugly. I thought the workers there were kidding around when they affirmed that the rock was, indeed a ruby.
The rest of us went home with our bags of practically microscopic gems, but we were just as satisfied. During the car ride back to Gatlinburg, Mom decided that she was going to have the ruby cut, refined and made into a necklace for me as my birthday gift and as a keepsake of our fun day. There was a shop outside of Gatlinburg that did the job, and we picked up my ruby necklace just before heading home to Ohio.
The ruby necklace was breathtaking! I couldn't believe that underneath the dirty, ugly outside of that rock was a beautiful, pure gemstone.
Being human, we sin. Sin is ugly and dirty to God. But thankfully, God does not throw us out based on whether or not we look valuable. Little by little, He washes away the dirt knowing fully well that underneath our muddy surface is a beautiful, beloved gemstone. Cleaning us up is no easy process, but he doesn't care how long it takes or how tired his hands are. He does it because we are worth it to Him.
Undoubtedly, we disappoint. I know I certainly was frustrated mining handful after handful and not finding any gemstones. Yet, as I mentioned before, with every new handful, I had a renewed spirit of excitement and hope. Even when He washes us clean, we still sin against Him, which dirties us up again. But God willingly and happily keeps mining. He takes another handful of love, another cup of His water and another bucket of "us." Sometimes it takes an entire bucket, right down to the very last handful, before we see ourselves as the precious gem God views us to be. In fact, God says we are even "MORE PRECIOUS THAN JEWELS!" (Proverbs 3:15)
Here is what else God says about us..
Instead, beauty should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. 1 Peter 4-5
All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you. Song of Songs 4:7
I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made! Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. Psalm 139:14
The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at his heart. 1 Samuel 16:7b
Remember, God sees you for the value of your heart! You are beautiful!
-Rachel
Rachel....that's every bit as good of a devotional compared to others I read. Lots of good applications from that! It also reminds me about judging those I meet based on the first things I see. I have been wrong so many times, you think I'd learn. What's inside is so much more important. Thanks again, Rachel, for the good words. Loved it.
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