FOODFORTHOUGHT

Billy Graham
Retold by Alice Gray


He was born in Italy but came to the United States as a young
man. He studied juggling and became famous throughout the whole
world. Finally he decided to retire. He longed to return to his home
country and settle down. He took all his worldly possessions, booked
a passage on a ship to Italy and invested all the rest of the money
in a single diamond. He hid the diamond in his stateroom.

While aboard ship, he was showing a boy how he could juggle a
bunch of apples. Soon a crowd had gathered. The pride of the moment
went to his head. He ran to his stateroom and got the diamond. He
explained to the crowd that it represented his entire life's
savings. He started juggling the diamond. Soon he was taking more and
more chances.

At one point he threw the diamond high into the air and the
crowd gasped. Knowing what the diamond meant, they begged him not
to do it again. Moved by the excitement of the moment, he threw the
diamond even higher. Again the crowd gasped and then sighed in
relief when he caught the diamond.

Having total confidence in himself and his ability, the
juggler told the crowd he would throw it up one more time. This time
it would be so high that it would be out of sight for a moment.
Again, they begged him not to do it.

But with the confidence of all his years of experience, he
threw the diamond high into the air. It actually did disappear for
a moment. Then the diamond returned into view sparkling in the
sunlight. At that moment, the ship lurched and the diamond dropped
into the sea and was lost forever.

We feel terrible about the man's loss of all his worldly
possessions. But God compares our soul more valuable than the
possessions of the whole world.

Just like the man in the story, some of us are juggling with
our souls. We trust in ourselves and our own ability and the fact
that we have gotten by before. Oftentimes there are people around
us begging us to stop taking the risk because they recognize the
value of our soul.

But we continue to juggle one more time...never knowing when
the ship will lurch and we will have lost our chance forever.

* Let us not miss eternal life in heaven by assuming that even
the longest day on earth gives us plenty of time to prepare for
eternity.

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"Teach us how short our life is,
so that we may become wise."
(Psalm 90:12)
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Shared by Joe Gatuslao

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