It's There, But Sometimes We Really Have to Look For It!

"For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret but that it will come to light" (Mark 4:22).

Hey Gang:  I have said it before and I say it again, the most beautiful place in the world, where you can feel the magnificence of God's creation, is to stand at the foot of the great Teton Mountains.  Wow, they are so very awesome beyond description! 

One day, as we were hiking on one of the many trails, we came across a place where someone had defiled the beauty of the land by dumping their garbage.  It was an eye-sore beyond description but, the closer we got to this disgusting eye- sore, I noticed there were beautiful flowers growing up through the trash.  Not just a few, but the entire area was a radiant blue and red mixed with purple.

 As I stood there and looked at that, I wondered if God was sending me a message:   "God's glory is always there, but we sometimes have to dig it out" - out of the garbage that is continually fed into our hearts, minds and souls.

Let me put some legs in what I am saying here. He was a mess, by world standards.  Everything he touched seemed to turn to agony and pain for all those around him.  My first contact with him was a soul-searching event - for I was not sure I wanted to accept the challenge of trying to find the red meat that surely lurked deep in this child's inner most being.

It did not take him long to live up to his reputation and I began to question the wisdom of accepting the challenge of this twelve-year-old, seventy-pound piece of dynamite who had many similar traits to a Tasmanian Devil.   And then, one day God gave me a miracle!  Have you ever thought how magnificent and powerful a tear is?  I remember my sainted grandmother saying to me one day, “If you can cry, God can fallow your heart and make you a blessing to someone.” 

On one of those especially bad days, I took him in my arms and just held him until I felt the muscles in his body begin to relax and I noticed something I had never seen before in him, a tear was running down his cheek.  At that moment I knew in my heart I was holding a "pearl of great price" in my heavenly Daddy’s eyes and He was going to do a miracle in this child's life!

So, my young friends, keep in mind that even in the midst of garbage, God can create beautiful flowers and, even in the hardest of hearts, God can release a beautiful ‘pearl of great price’;  but sometimes we just have to dig a little deeper to find the red meat.

Blessings,

 Gramps