We lay in a shapeless, huddled heap in our wooden
crate on the back porch.
Ever since The Man found us scattered
in gullies and crevices on the mountain and brought us to Unknown
Place, we lost all track of time. At least Out There we could
breathe. Here we were mashed in upon each other, to all appearances we were nondescript clumps of primal dirt, quite homogenized in appearance.
“What do you plan to do with those
mucky clods?” Curious Friend asked.
“I’m going to transform each one
into the likes of these.” The Man held up some shining objects.
We shoved at each other trying to see
through the slats of the crate. The Man displayed to Curious Friend a
splendid collection of highly polished stones that sparkled like
diamonds.
Our hopes soared. We fairly trembled
with anticipation to think that we would soon be lifted out of our
anonymity and transformed by some instant miracle into costly looking gems.
“Come along and I’ll show you how
it’s done,” invited The Man.
He dragged our crate out of the
shadows. But instead of picking us out one by one and transforming us magically as we expected, He
dumped all of us misshapen, mud-caked chunks into a large steel drum.
Oh! How it hurt to be treated so ignominiously! How the jagged edges
of each clod hit and scraped against each other!
Scarcely had we rolled over trying to
get more comfortable, than steaming, hot water began to squirt over
us. He shook quantities of abrasive powder on us, dribbled oil on the whole
mess, then slammed the door and locked it. We were terrified in the
utter darkness!
The Man flipped a motor switch and the
steel drum began to rotate unmercifully fast. Scraping, grinding,
banging, crashing, clod against clod we tumbled. We thought we could
not endure the deafening noise and the pain of our forced contact
with one another.
Continual spinning, friction, jabbing,
crushing, knocking. How long? How LONG?
“It takes time,” remarked The Man
to Curious Friend as they walked away together while our pummeling
went on and on.
Much, much later He returned and
flipped the switch off. The drum came to a squeaking halt. We were
unceremoniously dumped out into a trough outdoors, nearly blinded by
the sunlight. The Man turned a powerful spurt of hot water on us from
a hose. Dirt poured away in a murky stream. Would our ordeal never
end?
“Beautiful! Marvelous! Exquisite!”
exclaimed Curious Friend.
Breathless and dazed, we lay there in
a stupor until we realized that he was talking about us. We looked at
each other and gasped with disbelief. Each of us was different from
the other—sparkling, brilliant, and clean! We had been transformed
from earthy clods to strikingly beautiful gems!
The Man lifted one of us and displayed it in His palm.
“Look!” He spoke with delight. “I can see My reflection on the
surface of this one!”
He explained to Curious Friend, “I
can't polish one clod alone. It takes the friction of many clods
against each other, together with Oil, abrasive, and hot water to get
this marvelous result.”
*****
From THE RESOURCE BOOK
1 John 3:2
“Beloved, now are we
children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We
know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall
see Him just as He is.”
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