The sandy tide line was littered with pebbles of many colors with occasional seashells scattered among them. As I walked along, something caught my attention. There among its many varicolored kin was a tiny colorless pebble, transparent as glass. I stooped to pick it up. Why did this tiny colorless stone catch my attention? It was because of how it transmitted the light reflected back from its sandy bed. It was the transparency of this stone that made it stand out.

Now alerted to the difference, I spotted more of the transparent pebbles. Some were larger, some smaller. Some were gray or orange with varying degrees of transparency. With careful observation, I determined that it was the degree of smoothness and transparency that made the difference in their attractiveness. When they were wet, any roughness was masked by the water. But when they were dry, it all depended on their transparency.

Our lives are somewhat like those pebbles. We come in various sizes and colors, all cast up on the shore of the world’s experience. Some of us are transparent enough to transmit the light of God’s love to passersby. When we are bathed in the water of the Spirit, our minor imperfections are masked, and we are able to attract others to God’s light.

May our lives be transparent and continuously bathed in the water of the Holy Spirit so we may be conduits of the light of God’s love to others.

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