While waiting on my front porch for the bus to pick me up and take me to afternoon kindergarten, I saw something shimmering in the mid-morning sunlight. Glimmering in the sunshine, a shiny object sat half buried in the dirt of the flagstone bordered flower bed that my parents had created next to the front porch. As I leaned in and leaned down, my heart began to pound with fear and exhilaration because I was certain that the gleaming spots on the rock I had found were specks of real gold. With my fingers shaking, I set my bookbag down on the porch, reached my hand into the dirt of the flowerbed digging to fully expose the rock of gold. My body shivered with excitement when I saw gold flecks on the rock sparkled. I thought, “We are rich! I have found gold!” Enchanted, I shouted to my mom who was weeding in another nearby flower bed. “Mom! Look! I found gold!” I yelled at her.

She looked up from the flower garden she was weeding as I rushed toward her showing her the rock. After she examined the flecks of gold, she calmly and gently said, “No, Tena, this is fool’s gold not real gold. It looks like gold, but it is not.”

“Oh!” I said disappointedly. Feeling let down, I grabbed my bookbag, put the fool’s gold in my book bag to show my friends and classmates, and ran toward the bus. “How could something so glittery and golden not be real gold?” I asked myself.

Looking back and reflecting on this moment in time, I still have the memory of that excavation, and I still have the rock of fool’s gold which sits in my office as a reminder of my naivete. Isn’t that just like us when we see the next shiny object yelling for our attention? We become emotionally enthralled and feel the need to have it only later to learn it did not meet our expectations. Thankfully, our God is always true and wise.

Precious Lord, often we are captivated by shiny objects that steal our attention and never fully satisfy. We desire to keep our focus on You, the one true and living God. Amen.