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 - ...