Potatoes

Planting potatoes at school today. I love potatoes. I love that they grow, but all the useful work is done underground. Lots of leaf is all show - there's no room for the potatoes to develop if the stems are not buried. Then, when they are ready, it is a wonderful adventure to scrape away at the soil to find the treasure underneath.

What an allegory for our lives! All the useful work that God does in us is often so hidden that we don't see it. We just feel buried underneath a load of dirt that we would gladly get rid of. 2 Corinthians 4:6 - 8 says: For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

For 'we have this treasure in jars of clay' could also be 'we have God's hidden treasure underneath the dirt that has been dumped on us'. One day we'll see it!