We are special to God.  We know it.  But now and again God demonstrates His love for us in a way there is no doubting that we are the apple of His eye.  This happened to me on my sixtieth birthday a month or so ago.  My son and his family asked me for gift ideas and I suggested a family outing instead.  So we all piled into the 4X4 and headed down to Mt Tamborine to a tourist attraction at Cedar Creek Falls called Thunderbird Park.  I wanted to go fossicking for thundereggs!

We paid for a mining licence (I have the certificate to prove it) to dig for thundereggs in a real mine.  Thundereggs are nodule-like rocks formed within rhyolitic volcanic ash layers.  They usually contain centres of chalcedony which can be fractured by agate, jasper, quartz and gypsum crystals.  A thunderegg can look like an ordinary rock on the outside, but slicing it in half can reveal amazing colours and patterns you can enhance with polishing. 

Before setting out, all the miners are given a safety talk and told what to look for.  We were given a bucket and a small pick axe and told we’d have to work for our treasure because they had not managed to train the thundereggs to jump into our buckets! 

We climbed up a steep hill to the minefields where we worked for hours to dig out thundereggs.  I dug so energetically I got blisters!  When our buckets were full and the grandkids were ready for lunch we headed back to the shed and the staff sorted our finds.  They suggested which thundereggs could be worth slicing open and we chose to have some cut for a small fee (dependent on the size).  Oh, the excitement!  We each cut four thundereggs open and were delighted at what was revealed.  Nothing earth-shattering but lots of pretty formations and colours.  We all agreed that it was a spectacular day and I had a wonderful sixtieth birthday memory to cherish. 

The following day, I was reading my daily Bible devotional and couldn’t believe my eyes.  I ran to my husband and read it aloud.  It said Bible study is like prospecting for something precious.  It involved two things.  One, you must look for it.  Simply stepping into a mine and glancing around won’t cut it, you must search for it.  And secondly, you must dig for it like you are searching for hidden treasure! 

Of the 366 days of Bible devotions this leap year, the daily reading about searching for treasure fell the day after we had been fossicking!  Some might say it should have been on the actual day of the dig but the day after was when I had the blisters.  The day after was when I recalled the man saying we had to work for our thundereggs as they wouldn’t jump into our buckets. I immediately sent a photo of the devotion to my daughter-in-law saying, ‘I feel pretty special’.  She was amazed, too.

I could feel Father God’s love around me like a cloak.  I could not have felt more treasured and was so in love with Him that dare I say it, I felt like an only child right then.  I just had to be His one and only!   But of course, God loves all His children like that.  We are known by Him. (Galatians 4:9) It’s hard to wrap our minds around His love for us unless we get a revelation like I did that morning.  We are truly worth so much to Him.  We are so loved that He sent His unique Son, Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.  (John 3:16)

My acrylic-coated thundereggs are sitting on my office shelf with my mining licence and a family photograph taken outside Thunderegg Park.  I still experience a eureka moment every time I look at them.  I pray that you will discover how much God loves you, too.  Let the Holy Spirit reveal God’s love to you as you search for hidden treasure in the Bible.  Dig in.  It’s worth it!

Discover my love of fossicking in the short story series, The Fossickers Way.  Barry and Beryl Fossicker and their five children Jasper, Amber, Garnet, Opal and Perl love to travel around Australia fossicking.  They’ll pan for gold, noodle for opals and travel down dry creek beds for quartz.  But Mr and Mrs Fossicker know the greatest treasure is God’s wisdom.  They use the Book of Proverbs to instruct the children on how they should live.

Check out The Fossickers Way series here:https://cooeekidsministry.com.au/short-stories/the-fossickers-way/