All That is Gold Does Not Glitter | God Rewards Diligence

No glitter in your life?
Sometimes you’ve got to grit your teeth and hang on with diligence
until God reveals the gold, because gold doesn’t always glitter.

“All that glitters is not gold.”

That thought isn’t hard to understand, especially for some of us who have a shelf full of jars of glitter in all the colors of the rainbow. We may waste some a lot of money buying our stash, but it’s not gold. Although, the hope is always present that the crafts that come forth will have gold with their message or quality.

Just because it glitters doesn’t mean it’s gold. It takes more than that.

But think about…

All gold does not glitter.
Because sometimes it’s God.

Sometimes God things glitter, but often they don’t.  At times, doing the right thing is just plain hard and lowly.

Sometimes looking for the real gold takes tremendous diligence and a high resolution metal detector.

The minister we listened to this Sunday had a touching story about digging for the gold.  It’s kind of gritty, actually, but isn’t that what it’s all about when you’re panning for the good stuff? If you stick with it, gritty turns to glitter.

Here’s the story.

James’ living depends on cows and calves.  Specifically, healthy calves born to healthy cows.  He was tremendously pleased with one calf one certain spring.  The baby was gorgeous. He leaped and frolicked and his coat glistened with health.

And then, one day, the farmer went out to his herd, and No. 53 and his mamma were nowhere to be seen.  After some searching, he found them, mamma nosing above her baby, who was down in the grass, too weak to get up.  The farmer tried to help him stand.  He flopped down again.  He took him to the farmyard, and began operation “save No. 53.”  The sick baby refused to bottle feed.  No, the little animal had to be stomach fed, for two weeks.  No. 53 held on, but not much more.  The man’s children laughed and said, “Oh, Dad’s out feeding a dead calf.”  For some reason the farmer kept at it, and then, one morning, No. 53 looked like he was trying to stand.  In a week he could stand on his own.  The man’s diligence paid off. The triumphant day came that No. 53 could go back to the pasture.

James turned the herd out to the far pastures for the summer, and didn’t see them till roundup in the fall.  As the herd came in, one young cow stood head and shoulders above all the rest.  Can you believe, the ear tag said it was No. 53!  Win!

What made James have faith in his dying animal?  Why did he diligently spend all those hours coaxing life out of a hopeless looking situation?

There was a spark there that James felt, even though he didn’t see immediately how he could make it grow into a flame.

The potential for glitter is there;
if you seek with diligence, you can find gold.

Do you have a dull, very non-glittery situation in your life?

No one ever has to read far back in their journal to discover pages of humdrum, with no obvious gold.

But in the pages that follow, do you read that the dull spot began to glow?  With diligence in prayer and faith, the situation that seemed undo-able slowly began to have potential?

For those who face these dull, gritty times, here is hope…

Things will change.  The times will start to look better. With diligence, you will begin to find the gold in the situation that doesn’t glitter at first.

Hang on for the glitter.
God IS there.

And please share to remind the world that God rewards diligence.