GEODE!

You found a geode!!!!  It’ just an ugly rock.  (Look at the Geode photo above by James St. John, licensed under CC By 2.0).   

You cut it in half and are shocked at what you find!  It’s filled with beautiful layers of agate and crystal! See this very beautiful photo of a ‘Blue Geode’ by Form PXHere below ! 

Geodes are prized possessions because of their breathtaking  beauty revealed inside what looks like an ordinary rock.  

Geodes range in size from 2 to 30 inches in diameter.  They typically form in cavities in volcanic rock caused by air bubbles in the molten lava.  After the rock around the cavity hardens, minerals from groundwater or hydrothermal solutions begin to form crystals inside.  Different minerals give the crystal their beautiful colors.  The blue geode above thanks titanium for its glorious blue color!  Iron would have made it red or purple.  Nickle or chromium and it would have been green.  Manganese would have made the crystals pink!                                                        

Have you ever felt ‘ugly as a rock’?  Or is your nose or ears misshapen like a rock. 

GOOD NEWS!  God doesn’t look at your outside, but rather at your heart or your insides!  The geode is the perfect metaphor!  God is telling you that true beauty is internal, in your soul.

Listen to what He said to Samuel. who was given the task of finding a new King for Israel.

1 Samuel 16:7. ‘But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at.  People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”  

The Lord chose David, not his macho brothers to be the new King of Israel.  David the shepherd boy was small in stature and apparently nothing special to look at, but God saw his heart.

King David became known as ‘a man after Gods own heart’.  

‘After removing Saul (as King of Israel) He (God) made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’ Acts 13:22.  

Why is the heart and not the outward appearance so important to God?

Because, ‘A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.’  Matthew 12:35. NKJV.

He knew that David would ‘bring forth good things’ as the King of Israel!

Peter reiterates what God said to Samuel.  This time He says it to women.  

Ladies!  ‘Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes.  Rather, it should be that of your inner self, (like the inner beauty of the geode) the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight’. 1 Peter 3:3-4.

God is trying to encourage us to invest in what really matters.  He knows as we do, that this body of ours will fade with age, but our soul, our inner self is eternal.  The following is my prayer for you this New Year from the book of Ephesians:

‘I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your INNER BEING, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19.

MRB

HAPPY NEW YEAR YOU BEAUTIFUL GEODE!