Pebble or Jewel?

I mean that you have been saved by grace because you believed. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God. You are not saved by the things you have done, so there is nothing to boast about. God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

"Rough diamonds may sometimes be mistaken for worthless pebbles." (Thomas Browne) Worthless pebbles are sometimes kicked underfoot, tossed aside, or left unnoticed. Would it surprise you to know that is you took one of those 'worthless pebbles' to a jeweler and had him see what he sees within the stone, he might reveal something quite different than what you might have seen in it? In much the same manner, Jesus beholds each of us, rough, ragged, kind of beat up by life, nothing too much to look upon, but within each of us he sees a thing of extreme beauty and value. 

God has made us who we are - complete with all our quirks and idiosyncrasies. Nothing we have done has dissuaded him from realizing there was a design to our creation, a purpose for us to fulfill, and a means by which we are to fulfill that purpose. We are his creation and as such, we can stand assured he sees a gem inside of each of our crusty and battered shells! It is time that we begin to let Jesus define our value by what he sees and has purposed for each of us, not the world, the guy or gal next to us, or even our imagination.

Whenever we create an image of ourselves that differs from how God sees us, we are pursuing an image that won't lead to us fulfilling our purpose as God has planned for us. Too many times we focus on 'image' rather than 'character'. God's plan is for us to allow his character to be developed within us, then allow his character to begin to define and refine our image. Don't get that mixed up or you might just be in pursuit of what is nothing more than 'pebbles' and be missing out on what really could be 'jewels'. Just sayin!