The Rock Tumbler

As I was walking tonight, my mind drifted off to thoughts of what my favorite gift was when I was a child.  My mind went this way and that and finally settled on what was unquestionably, undoubtedly the favorite gift that I ever received.  It was an electric rock tumbler!  I'm pretty sure that this was the one right here:

I had so much fun with this thing.  I believed that every child needed to experience the joy, the expectation of the results in due time from the rock tumbler.  We purchased our kids a rock tumbler and they were able to experience just what I'm trying to describe.

In case you're not aware, it works like this.  In the kit is an electric motor that turns a cradle.  It makes a noise that drones on and on.  If I close my eyes right now, it doesn't take much imagination to hear that sound in my ears.  Now, in the kit are some very ordinary looking stones.  They are dull.  You might even call them ugly.

You put the stones in a little barrel.  It has a rubber o-ring to keep anything from dripping out.  Along with the stones, you add water and some coarse abrasive powder.  Then you tighten the cap of the barrel, lay it in the cradle and plug it in.  The noise is somewhat maddening and it goes on day after day, night after night for a prolonged period of time.  

After so many days, you stop the machine, open the barrel, wash off the stones and abrasive powder and then...  You add a finer abrasive powder and repeat the process.  If I recall correctly, this whole process goes on for weeks.  The next time you unplug it, you wash off the stones and this time you add a polish.  The process is repeated for a week or so and the next time you open the barrel and wash off the stones, this is what you have!:

What a transformation has taken place!  It was so exciting opening up the barrel after waiting for all that time!  It was so nice to finally go to bed at night in peace without the sound of the electric motor droning on in your bedroom!  The process taught you patience, for sure.  The ugly stones became 'beautiful gems,' but it didn't happen magically.  It was a process.  It is a process that imitates what goes on in mountain streams.  I remember hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains and wading in the streams, picking up perfectly round, smooth stones.  Stones that resembled the ones that David put in his sling to bring Goliath down.  Those stones weren't always smooth, though.  At one time they were jagged and rough.  Over time, with water rushing over them and having other stones bump into them, all the rough edges were smoothed out.

Have you ever thought about the fact that people are like that?  Life has a way of tumbling us against abrasive things (even people?) over and over again.  No, let me be more clear.  I think that God, over a period of time, uses harsh, abrasive things, people and experiences to smooth out our rough edges in order for us to be useful for His Glory.  It doesn't happen overnight.  You don't see the results for a long time.  The "noise" from the tumbling and polishing process nearly drives you nuts, but the end result is worth the wait.  It is often painful to be 'tumbled.'  

Sometimes even when the process is done, you might still feel like a dull, ordinary stone, but know that God washes you off and looks at you as a beautiful gem in the palm of His Hand.  He molds us and makes us, forms us and shapes us.  If the Good Lord ever gives us grandchildren, I know what I'll buy them - a rock tumbler!