As a young woman I recall my mother in law going on long walks in the early mornings.She collected treasures on these early morning beach walks. Beautiful colored glass that was then referred to as "beach glass". Nuggets of colored glass polished and worn smooth by the churning of the sea and the constant tumbling in the rocks.I asked her how she found it and she spoke of the color or the shine making it stand out. When I walked on the same beaches I would never find them so I gave up looking.
Only now, many years later do I understand what she was trying to teach me.Now when I go for my walks I know what I am looking for. I am drawn to it and excited with each new treasure I find.
So it is with faith. Sometimes in our lives we are blessed to be around someone who is more mature in their faith who reaches out to us and tries to show us how to find what they have found. Sometimes we are just not ready to really search for these nuggets of truth so we give up our search. Only later, sometimes much later, do we "get" what that person was trying to teach us. But when an "ah ha" moment happens we can go right back to that long forgotten truth and understand and grasp it and call it our own. We can recreate conversations that we thought were only passing time and realize that an important "nugget" of truth was being planted into our spirits lying dormant under the surface until the Father wills it to be born again in our hearts, take root, and grow into a belief.
At 55 years old I can remember my Aunt Bam telling me exciting, bewildering things about Jesus coming back that I did not understand. And now nearly 50 years later when I hear of the second coming of Christ I am once again in the backseat of her car hearing this amazing thing! Those seeds planted then, reaching maturity now, where the seeds can be passed to another generation of children. They too will hide things in their hearts and when the time is right it will spring fourth into a personal belief.
My mother in law did not live long enough to see me seek and find my own beach glass. Sometimes that is also how it works with faith. It is not our job to make someone find the treasure. It is our job to share what we know and to let God do with it what He chooses to do and when He chooses to do it.
