Proverbs 17:8
A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that has it:
...No matter which way we turn it; it still looks beautiful.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all the sides of our lives would shine like those of a precious stone! However, the truth is that they don’t. Obviously, we all have areas of our lives that need to be changed, forgiven, redeemed, and covered. However, it is not those sides of our lives upon which this particular proverb is focusing, but rather, the good side of our life that it addresses. And according to this proverb...something truly amazing transpires when we fixate our eyes upon these beautiful gifts.
In the second part of this proverb the writer says that “we turn it”. We take time to look at it and appreciate its beauty. Have you ever stopped to watch a man test drive a beautiful sports car, or Harley Davidson motorcycle? Maybe a time or two you have seen a woman try on a beautiful dress or great pair of shoes? In either one of these cases, there transpires a great deal of admiration for either of these objects in the eyes of their beholders. They turn them, feel them, touch them, and admire them for the good that they see in them. And if we were truthful about the matter, we might even say that the real draw is how these objects might make us feel about ourselves, if we could just somehow possess them.
However, having said all that, I believe that the writer says something to us, even more profoundly important, in his first statement. He says, “…in the eyes of him that has it.” I truly believe that we miss so much beauty in life, especially our own, because we are constantly looking at the gifts we don’t have, instead of admiring the beauty of the ones that we do! We can’t become what God has engineered us to become, if we are always focused on becoming someone else. We can never run our own course, if we are always trying to run that of another. As a matter of fact we will never have the confidence to run our race if we can’t see the value in the abilities that God has given us. It is not in our nature to invest in something that we do not value.
There is an old saying, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!" We, along with the rest of the world, could live life so much more successfully and content...if we could just take hold of each of our own individual blessings, gifts and talents...give them a really good long turn... sit back and admire them a moment…and then vigorously and faithfully put them to work!