By Dr.Claude Shema-Rutagengwa

Great Lakes Peace Network-GLPN

General Coordinator

HIDDEN GEMS

     A man was exploring some caves along the seashore. In one of them he found a very old leather bag.  When he looked inside, he was 


disappointed to find nothing but a bunch of hardened clay balls.  It looked as if someone had rolled up some balls of clay and left them out 
in the sun to bake.  They didn't look like much. Still, out of curiosity, he took the bag out of the cave with him.

 As he strolled along the beach, to pass the time, he threw the clay balls one by one out into the ocean to see how far he could throw them. 
He thought little about it until he accidentally dropped one of the balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone. 
Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining few clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure.  It struck him that he had been on the
beach a long time, and had thrown dozens of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean.  Apparently, someone had hidden a bag
full of gems in that cave to retrieve it later, but never got a chance to do so. Over a long time, the gems had become covered with layer after layer of mud and clay.

 Sometimes we treat people the same way. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external layer of clay.
It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it, we see that person as less important than
someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy.  But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.

 There is a treasure in each and every one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, then the clay begins to peel away and the 
brilliant gem begins to shine forth.  

Let us not throw away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden underneath a layer of clay.

                                               ……….X……………..