Surely there is a vein for the silver and a place for gold where they fine it.  Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone.  Job 28:1, 2

 God created this earth and placed in it everything we need, including great natural resources and treasures.  At the same time, God loves to create parables and show mysteries through them.  Jesus told us that parables teach valuable lessons to the wise, but hide those lessons from the unworthy.

Ro 1:19, 20 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Even our physical earth is a parable.   The fact that we must mine the precious metals out of stone shows us that there are precious treasures to be mined from this life.  Henry David Thoreau wrote: “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.”  There is so much to learn from this life we have.  We can suck out all the marrow of life, but sometimes it takes years to wear away the rock before the gold can shine through.

I admire my grandparents and my parents.  Because they have lived long, I can look back and see that in their younger years, they had their issues, but as they traveled through their life’s journey, somehow the rock wore away.  They changed and gained so much from living their journey.  Their lives were not easy.  I think that no one born on earth has an easy journey.  Thinking back to world events during my grandparents’ lives, they experienced World War I, followed immediately by the epidemic of the Spanish flu, then the Great Depression years and the years leading up to and through World War II.  My parents were then directly involved in World War II, even marrying just as my dad was about to be sent overseas.  World War II was followed by years of young children and financial struggles.  Once they found a little more ease and prosperity, the sixties with all of its turmoil exploded in front of their faces: the Vietnam war, upheavals throughout the country as blacks struggled to find true equality, assassinations of prominent figures including President Kennedy and Martin Luther King.   All of this immersed in a changing culture of rock music, drugs, “free love,” and demonstrations.

All of these things changed them.  As they traveled through their life’s journey, they changed and gained so much from experiencing these manifold trials.  They found confidence and peace.  They overcame impatience and anger.  They increased their love and kindness.  They learned to trust.  Through it all, they learned to pray and depend on their faith in God.  I remember my dad’s impatience and worry when I was young.  Now he is 102 years old and he doesn’t talk much any more, but when several of us gather together with him, he looks around the room and begins to cry and he says, “I love you all so much.”  Both his and my mom’s hardships turned to gold because they learned and grew from their experience here on earth.  Dad’s most recent gems were: “My wife in heaven is happy.  Pretty soon I’m going to be with her and we will be happy together.”  Then, “I’ve been praying for a long time now because I want us all to be happy with Him.”  And, “there’s lots of things to pray for.”

What golden nuggets of wisdom are we mining from our life on this ball of rock that we call Earth?  We should “suck the marrow” out of each experience.  Our exquisitely loving God and Father can only allow things into our lives that will somehow teach us something that will help us get closer to Him.  Sometimes that is a hard pill to swallow because life can be a very rocky road indeed.  Even so, let it bring out of us its golden fruit so that one day we too can say, “I’ve been praying for a long time because I want us all to be happy with Him.  There are lots of things to pray for.”