<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her\u201d (Hosea 2:14).<\/em><\/p>\n An ancient Arabian fable tells of three merchants who crossed the desert. In the daytime, they would pitch tents for shelter from the desert sun. When the stars came out, they would ride their camels in the cool of the night. At one point, the merchants crossed a dry riverbed under the stars.<\/p>\n \u201cHalt!\u201d said a voice from the darkness. All three men jumped down from their camels and huddled in fear. \u201cWho\u2019s there?\u201d one of them said.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid,\u201d said the voice in the dark. \u201cI won\u2019t harm you if you do as I say. See those pebbles at your feet?\u201d<\/p>\n By the dim starlight, the merchants saw thousands of pebbles in the riverbed. \u201cEach of you pick up a pebble and put it in your pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n The three merchants obeyed. Each took a pebble from the riverbed.<\/p>\n \u201cNow leave this place,\u201d the voice said, \u201cand don\u2019t stop until daybreak.\u201d<\/p>\n The merchants mounted up. One said, \u201cWhat\u2019s this all about?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI will only say this,\u201d the voice replied. \u201cIn the morning, you will be happy and sad. Now, go!\u201d<\/p>\n Baffled, the three merchants proceeded on their way. As they traveled, they wondered what the voice meant by saying that they would be both happy and sad. When morning came, the merchants stopped. Each man pulled the single pebble from his own pocket and saw that it sparkled in the morning sunlight. The \u201cpebbles\u201d were precious gems. One man had a ruby, another, an emerald, and the third, a sapphire. \u201cJewels!\u201d one merchant said, his face shining with joy.<\/p>\n \u201cOh, no!\u201d wailed the second. \u201cThere were thousands of jewels all over the riverbed! Each of us took only one! Why didn\u2019t we grab handfuls?\u201d \u201cLook!\u201d shouted the third, pointing behind them. A desert wind had whipped up, erasing their tracks. \u201cWe can never find our way back!\u201d The voice in the desert had spoken truly. The merchants were happy and sad. They had found wealth in the desert but they could have taken more!<\/p>\n \u00a0 Finding Jewels in the Desert \u201cTherefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her\u201d (Hosea 2:14). An ancient Arabian fable tells of three merchants who crossed the desert. In the daytime, they would pitch tents for shelter from the desert sun. When the stars<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2270,256,7084],"class_list":{"0":"post-21495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-devotionals","8":"tag-desert","9":"tag-finding","10":"tag-jewels"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
*Os Hillman, Upside of Adversity,<\/em> Regal Books, Ventura, CA p. 59, 2006<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"