Two men were driving down the road in a truck. Suddenly, the driver slowed down and said, “Look at that beautiful angel.” The passenger excitedly asked, “Where? Where?” The driver said, “Right there.”

The passenger said, “I don’t see any angel. All I see is that big rock.” The driver said, “I’m going to prove to you that there is an angel there.” He then took the passenger home, let him out, and drove back to his own house. There, he went into his garage, got out his hoist, and loaded the hoist into his truck bed. Then he drove back to the rock, used the hoist to load the rock into the truck bed, took the rock back to his house, and unloaded it with the hoist.

At that point, he went to work on the rock, systematically chipping away at it with hammers and chisels. He worked for weeks and weeks until finally he was finished. Then he called up the passenger and said, “Come over to my house. I want to show you something.” The passenger came over and saw a beautiful, sculptured angel. He said, “My, what a beautiful angel.” The driver said, “That’s the angel I saw on the road that day. It was in that rock all along. All I did was release it.” This story makes me think about how God can see the untapped beauty that lies within people.

God looked down at a timid sort of man whose family was entrenched in idolatry and saw the founding father of the race of people by whom Jesus would enter the world. Abraham was in that “rock” all along.

God looked down at a former member of Egyptian nobility, now living as a humble exile on the backside of the desert, and saw the man who would lead Israel out of Egyptian bondage. Moses was in that “rock” all along.

God looked down at a young shepherd boy whose own family didn’t even rate him all that high and saw Israel’s greatest king. David was in that “rock” all along.

God looked down at an uneducated fisherman, a man who was very prone to extremes, and saw the apostle who would preach the famous Pentecost sermon after which 3,000 people would get saved. Peter was in that “rock” all along.

God looked down at a brilliant, highly educated Pharisee, a man whose zeal for Judaism knew no bounds, and saw the apostle who would start churches all over the Roman empire, win hordes of people to Christ, and write half the New Testament. Paul was in that “rock” all along.

So, before you give up on yourself and decide that you’ll never amount to much in life, you’d better consider all these examples. You may be just a “rock” now, but God knows the untapped beauty that lies within you. But first you must believe in Jesus as your personal Savior and then unreservedly cast yourself at His feet, to do with as He will. That’s your part. His part is then to faithfully mold you and shape you, a little hammering here, a little chiseling there, until that beauty that was always within you is on display for the world to see.