I recently saw an advertisement for a company that would sell me a bag of gravel that could contain gemstones. The ad showed seven or eight small emeralds or some kind of green gems that one client found in the bag they purchased, as if to say every bag has a possibility of hitting a “mother load” like that one. Intrigued, I have done a Google search and sure enough, there are companies selling “gemstone paydirt” online, and you can even order them from Amazon for anywhere from 25 dollars and up, depending on the supplier and the weight of the bag you buy! The Google search suggested these bags could contain quartz, amethyst, jasper, or pyrite, and some suppliers are more reliable than others. I didn’t go deep enough down this rabbit hole to find out if whatever gems you may find in the bag make up for the purchase of the gravel mix, or if it is truly just a fun search for treasure-type experience. It truly caught my attention because of the skeptic in me that immediately thought to myself, “if you believe that, I have a bag of dirt I can sell you.” But I didn’t think much more about what I perceived as a gimmick until yesterday morning.
I’ve mentioned how I walk while listening to podcasts before, and yesterday morning’s walk was accompanied by the incredible Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast where Carey interviewed Tyler Staton as his guest (Episode 821 if you want to listen to the whole thing). Tyler is the pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon, and had gone through chemotherapy for cancer while pastoring, parenting, and leading. He was sharing some of what he had learned from that experience, and how it had changed him when the “gemstone paydirt” idea deeply connected with me when Tyler said, “I think there are treasures hidden in each day that are almost always not the shiniest parts of each day, and to show up and be entirely present in those places where God can gift me love, to give and receive with another person, is to position myself to know the kingdom of God in my midst.” I immediately thought of diamonds, then gemstones, and then the bags of dirt from the advertisement.
There is a thing called “pebbling” that has developed in our modern context that is defined as sending a small, thoughtful token to someone, usually a meme, link, or video, that lets them know you are thinking of them. I have been known to “pebble” my adult kids by sending them funny videos or jokes via text and based on their responses I think they see it as more of an annoyance than anything else. I do wish they saw my efforts as saying “I am thinking about you” but they live busy lives and often don’t even respond.
God doesn’t send “pebbles”
He sends gemstones.
Not only do we not want to miss those gifts from God, we also don’t want to dismiss them as annoyances. It shouldn’t take an illness or crisis to get us to slow down enough to appreciate the gemstones He sends throughout the day, but we are often so caught up in our lives we overlook them. Tyler’s words were a great reminder to me, and hopefully to you also, that I can live my life discovering diamonds from God in the moments of my life.
Each day it seems like we get a new bag of dirt to sift through. Each moment of the day is like a pebble in the bag, and sometimes it seems like a lot of mundane, repetitive rocks that don’t really stand out from the others. But there are moments that are not just a pebble; it is a gemstone, maybe even a diamond. When we are rushing through our day, going from one pebble to another with all the distractions keeping us from really paying attention, we easily miss the gemstones. Sometimes the gems are covered in dirt and we don’t realize what they are without more inspection, and when we are running at our normal pace, we don’t always take the time to look deeper. When we do notice them, we may quickly put them aside without missing a beat as we rush off to the next pebble, thinking it is an anomaly or that we will appreciate them later.
It is unusual to find people living lives of intentional investigation, people that spend their days watching for the gems among the pebbles, people that take the time to process the gems that are hidden beneath a layer of dust or debris camouflage hiding the true value of the moment. But Tyler is right, each day has treasure in it, and if we show up and can be entirely present, we will see God’s loving gifts hidden among the hustle. What can we do to start looking for the gemstones among all the pebbles in our day? First, I think we need to begin to believe that God loves us enough to send us gemstones. I sometimes find it hard to believe that the God of the universe cares enough about me to send me little gifts throughout the day, but He does! He loves us enough to send us His son Jesus, He loves us enough to provide what we need for the day, and He loves us enough to send us gemstones as reminders too. Secondly, we need to start looking for the gemstones in each day. It may be hard to see at first, but when we begin looking for signs of His love, we will begin to see the signs of His love. That is what I think Tyler meant when he said, “I think there are treasures hidden in each day that are almost always not the shiniest parts of each day, and to show up and be entirely present in those places where God can gift me love.”
The gemstones are found in everything from a conversation with a friend that is meant to build us up, or in an interruption that God uses to break us out of the monotony of our schedule. Sometimes they are found in a verse we read in scripture that soothes our soul at just the right time, or when an internal voice breaks into our mind, casting light on a dark thought and chasing it away. They may show up in a new opportunity or an old one shutting down. The point is, we won’t know unless we are seeking God for the right perspective about whatever it is we are looking at; we may miss the difference between a worthless pebble and a gemstone from Him. And when He reveals to us what the gemstone is, celebrate it and thank Him for it! Stand in awe of the fact that God loves you and is sending you these great connections with Him.
Some days may have more pebbles than gemstones, some more gems than pebbles, but if each gemstone we uncover is seen as a gift straight from God, we may slow down, appreciate the gift more, see God’s daily presence in our lives, and celebrate how special these moments are.
Begin exploring the pebbles of the day with the expectation of finding God’s gemstones for us!
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