The Touchstone

Do you remember the legend of the touchstone? According to that ancient legend, if you could find the touchstone on the coast of the Black Sea and hold it in your hand, everything you touched would turn to gold. You could recognize the touchstone by its warmth. The other stones would feel cold, but when you picked up the touchstone, it would turn warm in your hand.

Once a man sold everything he had and went to the coast of the Black Sea in search of the touchstone. He began immediately to walk along the shoreline picking up one stone after another in his diligent and intentional search for the touchstone. However, after several days had passed, he suddenly recognized that he was picking up the same stones again and again. So he devised a plan...pick up a stone, if it is cold, throw it in the sea. This he did for weeks and weeks.

Then one morning he went out to continue his search for the touchstone. He picked up a stone, it was cold...he threw it into the sea. He picked up another stone...cold! He threw it into the sea.

He picked up another stone...it turned warm in his hand, and before he realized what he was doing...he threw it into the sea!

This parable is a good example of how we routinely going about our Christian lives. We might have something come along and warm us and we too quickly toss it aside. Absentmindedly, mechanically, nonchalantly...we toss aside that very thing that we are searching for, craving, that one moment we are willing to give everything to gain.

Don’t let your Christian life become rote. Live in the moment. Dwell on the experience. Endeavor to understand the symbolism. Savor the journey.

Christians often complain of the lack of spirituality in their lives, all the while they are blindly missing the opportunities presented to them. They become too caught up in the argument of time, by wasting time arguing. They fuss over the funding of programming and missions, and miss the bountiful reward which comes from giving. Christians even plead with God to reveal himself in their lives and miss the opportunity to see him present in the worship service in the way of service, word, sacrament, and giving.

Are you missing the warmth, because you too quickly threw away the gift?