Let me share with you a true store from the pages of the late 19th century. A farmer settled in Africa and heard of others that had made millions through the discovery of diamonds. The African continent was rich in diamonds and he could hardly wait to sell his farm and search for diamonds himself. The farmer sold his farm and spent the rest of his life wandering the vast African continent searching for those "gleaming gems" which brought such high prices on the markets of the world, but without success. Finally, years later, as an old man, broke and desperate, he threw himself over a bridge and drowned.

Meanwhile, the man who had bought his farm was plowing and cultivating the land, working with what he had, and he found a large unusual stone. This particular field was literally covered with them. He wasn't sure what they were so he took one of them to an expert to have it examined. It turned out to be a great diamond of enormous value! Today, it is one of the world's richest diamond mines.

Imagine, the first farmer sold his farm for practically nothing in order to look for diamonds elsewhere. If he had only taken the time and study to find out what diamonds looked like in their rough state, and first thoroughly explored the land he presently owned, he would have the riches he sought - right in his own back yard!

I believe each of us, at this very moment, is standing in the middle of our own acres of diamonds - if we would just take the time and have the patience to first thoroughly explore the circumstances in which we now find ourselves. Don't you see? Right now, the contacts, friends, neighbors, loved ones, and business associates, that we know and see regularly, are the riches that we seek in their rough state, literally in our own back yards!

"Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!" (John 4:35).

- www.trentonchurchofchrist.com