God Looks at the Heart - Thunder Eggs
God looks at the heart - Thunder Eggs
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While I was in college, I took a class in Lapidary. That is the
skill of shaping and polishing rocks. It was always exciting to
cut into a rock for the first time and see what it looked like
inside.
As part of the class, we took several field trips to gather
rocks. They came in an amazing array of different colors,
textures and other characteristics. At first, I would come home
with large piles of rocks that looked nice, but had problems.
They would either break when you tried to cut and polish them,
or they could not be polished!
It took a while to learn the characteristics of a rock that
would produce a beautiful polished specimen. It took longer to
be able to recognize those characteristics in the field. And,
sometimes it was still a disappointment to cut into a rock that
should have had something beautiful inside, but was not
attractive at all.
A good example of a rock with a shock is the thunderegg.
Thundereggs are rocks that are produced where there has been
volcanic activity of some type. No one knows for sure how they
are produced, but they look like they started out as balls of
mud that became hardened into rock.
For some reason, the centers of many of them are filled with
agate. Sometimes the agate is brightly colored or has
interesting patterns in it. When you cut that type of thunderegg
in half, you have a very pleasant surprise. When polished, these
become magnificent showpieces for the creativity of God.
There is a variation on this theme that is called a geode.
Geodes are similar but in general, they are hollow. Many of them
are filled with brilliant crystals of varying size and color.
These rocks are all ugly on the outside. They look like lumpy
balls of mud. But on the inside, they often hide incredible
beauty.
In our lives, we meet many different types of people. We come in
all kinds of different sizes, shapes and colors. Some people are
not really very pleasant to look at. Some people act funny. Some
people don't act very nice. But, people often have something
down inside that is very beautiful.
The wonderful thing about God -- He can look inside us and see
what we are really like He can see into the future and see what
we can become with His help AND He is more than willing to make
you into that person.
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Resources
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Everywhere I have visited in the United States seems to have a
small rock shop somewhere nearby. I would suggest that you visit
one and get to know the owners. They will be able to help you
with many rocks and fossils that will be of help to you in
illustrating appropriate lessons.
(cut and paste the links into your browser window)
Some books on rocks that you might be interested in are: DK
Handbooks: Gemstones
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=backpainrelie-20&path=tg/
detail/-/1564584984/qid%3D1041969017/sr%3D1-3 Gemstones of the
World, Revised Edition
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=backpainrelie-20&path=tg/
detail/-/0806994614 Eyewitness: Rocks & Minerals
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=backpainrelie-20&path=tg/
detail/-/0789458047/qid%3D1041969017/sr%3D1-9 National Audubon
Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and Minerals
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=backpainrelie-20&path=tg/
detail/-/0394502698/qid%3D1041969719/sr%3D1-12 Eyewitness:
Crystal & Gem
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=backpainrelie-20&path=tg/
detail/-/0789457644/qid%3D1041969719/sr%3D1-16 Smithsonian
Handbooks: Rocks & Minerals
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=backpainrelie-20&path=tg/
detail/-/0789491060/qid%3D1041969719/sr%3D1-19
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