For years, Little Meadow Creek played the same soothing sounds. Chattering over the rocks and then under the bridge, it disappeared into the woods. Many times, many folk strolled past here going into town.
Young Conrad Reed usually sauntered by, greeting the creek as an old friend. But this day he stopped and looked into the water. Dad needed a doorstop and he would take home a heavy rock.
He saw one. It was just the right size to hold his weathered door ajar on the hot August afternoons in North Carolina. It did seem heavy for its size.
Three years later, the boy’s father, farmer John, took the rock to a jeweller who promptly paid less than a week’s wages for it — less than four dollars in 1803. The doorstop was actually a 17-pound gold nugget and was sold again for 1000 times more. Of course, discoveries and excitement grew, and by 1832, more than 50 mines were operating in the state, employing 25,000 people.
Yet, the biggest lump of gold ever found east of the Rocky Mountains had sat unrecognized and undervalued for three years at farmer John’s door. But in all those years its real value never changed. While the gentle creek quietly washed its rough but priceless features or while it sat daily by the door, its real and intrinsic worth was the same. It was merely unrecognized.
Could it be that the waters of time have slipped through your fingers and that you have missed the great treasure of God’s salvation that’s still within reach?
Today some see Him as a Galilean peasant, merely a carpenter. Some see a wise and good prophet and stop to hear a few words. Some see a good man and get nothing more from Him than the example of His life.
What is He worth to you? His real and intrinsic value has never changed. Many people, living in many other centuries, have appreciated Him. His words have stirred many minds and changed lives. Sick people confined to bed, young people confined to jail, retirees passing the time on a golf course, businessmen pursuing one more dollar — all these have had encounters with the living Son of God. He has brought the joy of forgiveness and the comfort of the peace of God into the center of their changed lives.
Jesus spoke about “true riches” and told of God’s love for the unlovable, of God’s forgiveness that was offered to the contrite soul. Give His story a read. He has sat at your door unvalued for too long.
And please notice, you won’t have to change your life. As you already know, you can’t! Thankfully, that’s His part — He does that. You just have to value Him, receive Him. Then He brings you into His family.
You’ll find out about Walter’s Wasted Secret Stash in the next story. You may find you have a hidden secret of your own.