One day in November, 2007, our team of staff and teenaged students arrived early at a tiny, ramshackle building in downtown St. John's on the Caribbean island of Antigua. Our mission on this trip was to present the gospel to the elementary schools, and to leave a printed curriculum that the teachers could use as a follow-up. We targeted two or three bare-bones schools each day, but this small school seemed the most deprived of all.

As we huddled together in the small, fenced-in schoolyard waiting to be invited in, I happened to glance down at the ground. The imprint of a shell in a white rock lay imbedded in the black dirt. "It's a fossil!" I called out excitedly. One of our boys came rushing over to have a look, and helped me pry it out of the hard-packed ground. The principal of the little school gave us permission to keep it. Why did no one in this school care that there was a fossil in a rock on their playground? I wondered. Surely, they would want to dig it up and keep it. To me it was a treasure, a real fossilized shell, but the local students had just overlooked it.

How often we overlook something that is valuable, by not recognizing its worth. Something similar happened to Jacob when he was selecting a wife.

Genesis 29:16-18 – Now Laban had two daughters. The older daughter was named Leah, and the younger one was Rachel. There was no sparkle in Leah's eyes, but Rachel had a beautiful figure and a lovely face. Since Jacob was in love with Rachel, he told her father, "I'll work for you for seven years if you'll give me Rachel, your younger daughter, as my wife." (NLT)

Jacob overlooked Leah because she had weak or dull eyes. He didn't know that God had great plans for Leah, who would become part of the lineage of Jesus through her son, Judah. Leah was the real treasure, used by God in an unexpected way to accomplish His purposes through her.

John 7:24 – Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly. (NLT)

The principal of our school in Canada shared how, with the working mother's permission, he would go right into the home of an unmotivated teenaged boy to haul him out of bed, as he tended to miss so much school. At the time of our mission trip, however, this student was a favourite, full of godly character, and was even labelled "team mascot" by one of the teams. The principal was able to discern that the student had real potential, a hidden treasure, and by persistence, dug him out of the dirt, so to speak.

Let's not be quick to judge people by their outward appearance, but in getting to know them, discover the real treasures that they are.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You look beneath the surface to see our worth. Help us not to judge others hastily, but to see the potential and worth in each person You put in our path. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.