There is an ancient story out of the Middle East which tells of three merchants crossing the desert. They were traveling at night in the darkness to avoid the heat of the day. As they were crossing over a dry creek bed, a loud attention-demanding voice out of the darkness commanded them to stop. They were then ordered to get down off their camels, stoop down and pick up pebbles from the creek bed, and put them into their pockets.

Immediately after doing as they had been commanded, they were told to leave that place and continue until dawn before they stopped to set up camp. This mysterious voice told them that in the morning they would be both sad and happy. Understandably shaken, they obeyed the voice and traveled on through the rest of the night without stopping. When morning dawned, these three merchants anxiously looked into their pockets. Instead of finding the pebbles as expected, there were nine precious jewels! And, they were both happy and sad. Happy that they had picked up some of the pebbles, but sad because they hadn’t gathered more when they had the opportunity.

This fable expresses how many of us feel about the treasures of God’s Word. There is coming a day when we will be thrilled because we have absorbed as much as we have, but sad because we had not gleaned much more.

Jewels are best shown off when held up to a bright light and slowly turned so that each polished facet can catch and reflect the light. Each of these nine jewels of character will be examined in the light of God’s Word and how best to allow them to be developed in the individual life.

That is how I feel about the following three verses from Paul’s writings which challenge us with what their Christian character or personality should look like. Jesus Christ has boiled down a Christian’s responsibility to two succinct commands: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and body, and love your neighbor like yourself. Likewise, Paul the apostle has captured for us the Christian personality in nine traits:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-25

hugs n’ blessings for all the precious stones we possess, and those yet to be collected.