The Gold Behind the Grime

   A dear friend of mine wrote this article. I was blessed by it and wanted to share it with you all! I hope you are blessed also! :)

  "There was once a small, remote mountain village in which a statue stood. Now, this was a statue of pure gold It was able to bring this village much wealth and fame, but because it was covered with grime, and it's maker had long since died, nobody saw any good in it's graceful shape. Moss on it grew and dirt covered it's gentle face. Soon a farmer came to town in search of a plot of land on which to raise his swine and to him was sold the lot on which the statue stood and his pigs were allowed to roam round it's base. Before long this place was very filthy and repulsing. The farmer needed more space for his swine and so he sold the lot with the grime covered statue and all the while not seeing the riches and wealth that dwelt on his step. Now the second owner of the grimy statue wished his plot to be sublimely beautiful. He was quite put off by all the stench that drenched his land and at once began to scrub, but he was not all that young and so he hired the best maintenance and cleaning crew he knew. They set at once to clean the plot of ground and the statue wondered if perhaps today was going to be the day of true appreciation for her golden glow: but no, she was sent off to the garbage dump as if she was the very start of the stench.

   Now by and by, the owner of the plot had a beautiful garden which became so famous that people came from miles around to see it. This garden lacked the most important part, the center. The center of it, the statue was sent off with all the rubbish to a distant recycling plant for reuse of thrown out items. There worked a very poor but profusely thoughtful man of which many admired. For though he was a garbage sorter he saw beauty in each cast-away. When he saw the grime-covered-statue, his heart leaped within him. His companions laughed as he spent every spare second scrubbing the statue, but in a fortnight their scoffing turned to awe as a beautiful statue of pure gold emerged. The garbage sorter had seen beauty in the most unlikely place, the dump. He also became very wealthy because of all who came to see the statue in it's place of honor in the middle of a city square. He looked after it day and night. One day the man who had thrown out the statue off his plot and putt the stench away from his step visited the city as he saw the sights he was directed to look at the statue for it was the greatest attraction of the city. He went to see it and as he lifted his sights to see it he recognized a near-by pig farmer. When they both came to understand that they had had this great treasure in their own sights for so long but had failed to see it's beauty each was deeply moved by his own foolishness.





   And so, many disregard true treasure in their lives, people who they fail to see as valuable until another person discovers the beauty we've failed to see. They stand to us as grimy statues undeserving of our time and or energy and are seen as a sore to society when in reality they are pure gold with a thin layer of grime obscuring their true sunshine."

Written by Sarah Bartels