There is a treasure in each and every one of us.

[Sober_John]

A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves he 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 o n the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 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 each of you. Thank
> you for looking beyond my clay vessel.

[ICU]

I love that message Sober John! This will be added to my list of inspirational thoughts for sure.