We had a wonderful time with our daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren in Texas this summer. One Saturday morning we all took a ride in the hill country and enjoyed the rolling, curving roads through the massive ranches.

The sun was out. The grandchildren were well behaved. The air was pure and the scenery was gorgeous in its own rugged way. The parched soil and rocky terrain makes one wonder how people survived there generations ago.

We stopped on a curve of the gravel road miles into ranch land. Rocks of all sizes peppered the hillside where even desert vegetation could hardly take root.

All my life I have hoped to pick up a rock and find it is a geode with beautiful crystals inside, the type often used as book ends when polished. Today was my day. As we all turned over stones on the hillside, I picked up a non-descript rock the size of my fist. I turned it over and found it cracked in half. Staring at me for the first time in my life was the geode I’ve hoped for decades to find.

It wasn’t polished and was pretty rough looking but I had finally found my geode. I forget exactly what I said with surprise to the others as I treasured this rock in my hand. They were as thrilled as I was. My grand daughter immediately said with a wonderful, joyful smile, “Grandpa, can I have it?”

“Sure, Emily,” I replied, her innocence and love in two nanoseconds overcoming my grudging bit of selfishness as I placed it in her hands.

I laughed at myself over the whole situation. The stone really wouldn’t have added anything of value to my life, certainly not in comparison to Emily’s love. A few days later Emily wrote me a birthday card and gave me a present made by her beautiful two hands. Her card and gift on my desk convey a lot more joy than the geode would have. I laugh at myself to think that a part of me balked for a nanosecond when Emily politely requested the stone.

If innocent pure love overcomes momentary selfishness, how much more can continued love overcome even harder hearts? Thank you, Jesus, for this lesson.