Have you ever tried to look for fossils? This tedious yet potentially rewarding hobby is something that I discovered a couple of years ago. One day, the kids and I were outside sitting in our brand new backyard fire pit, when we began noticing some unusual rock shapes. We had as a family just completed building this 20′ x 20′ fire pit area which consisted of layers of sand, gravel, and finally river rock. Well, as we began to examine more closely some of these unique river rocks, we looked them up on the internet and recognized that they were actually fossils! Now, we do not live near the ocean. We live in north Georgia. These river rocks had come from a supplier who got them from a supplier who had scooped them out of a large river somewhere. So, finding these small fossils in our back yard was quite the surprise!

This new discovery in our fire pit got me so excited, that that summer I spent hours each day combing through the river rocks, with the high hopes of finding a treasure worth some money, or at least that would be fun to share with others who enjoy fossil hunting too. Now, since these were just small river rocks, none of them are very big, and for some you need to view the details through a magnifying glass, but each discovery just spurred me on to keep digging. I found a small shark tooth, hundreds of crinoids (Indian beads), halysites (chain coral), a few Petosky stones, Charlevoix stones, Favosites (honeycomb coral), Horn coral (rugosa), and couple of Brachiopods (lamp shells) to name a few.

Remember when I said there were layers? Well, the first summer, I basically looked through just the top 2 inches. But, as I felt I had picked out the obvious ones there, I began to move to the lower sections. We had about 6″ of river rocks filling the entire fire pit, so there was a lot of ground to cover. After literally digging down to the dirt around the whole area, naturally my finds became fewer and farther between. In the last 3 years, I have gone through the entire area multiple times, and felt like I had seen in detail every single rock. But to my surprise, every now and then I will come across a fossil that I had missed! This encourages me to keep looking, searching, digging, inspecting…

(I must interject here that this is not something that my family finds interesting any more, especially my husband. He keeps asking me what am I going to do with all of these ‘rocks’ since he feels like I have brought about 1/2 of the rocks from the fire pit into our house!)

Today, I walked out there, sat down to enjoy the early spring sun, and began just looking at the top layer of rocks. In 15 minutes, I had found 3 more fossils just sitting there! The rain had cleaned away the dirt, the sun was shining on them, and since I was spending time looking, they were revealed to me. Now, if I hadn’t gone out there to look for more, I wouldn’t have seen them. It took my desire, my time, and my effort, along with some hope, to find them. As I sat there admiring them, the Lord whispered to me…

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Hebrews 4:12

“This is a good comparison to reading my Word.” He was using this moment as an example to show me that no matter how many times we have read through the Bible, or have heard the stories in church, or learned about them in Bible study groups, the Word of God is alive with thousands of treasures to be found! If we search with earnest for truths in God’s Word, He will reveal them to us!

“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “’If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’”
John 8:31-32

Reading the entire Bible is like my first pass through the fire pit: I’m seeing the rocks on top, just the first layer. It’s only when I begin to dig again and deeper that I will find more fossils. It takes repeated efforts and time in God’s Word to recognize those often elusive yet valuable lessons that He wants us to learn. If you don’t keep reading it, you will not find what you are looking for, or be open and ready for what you need to grow.

God’s Holy Spirit has a way of revealing these things to us. But for that to come to fruition, we must be willing and ready to put in the work of listening, of searching Scripture, and of applying it. I can read the same passages 20 times, and each time I notice (or the Spirit points out) something new. This is how it is alive: since it is God’s written yet living Word, He will point out to you what He desires for you to see, and to know, right now.

“…to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge..”
Colossians 2:2b-3

So ‘pick up your shovel’ and begin digging into God’s love letter to us with expectations and the hope of a new discovery. Reread passages that you’ve heard many times. Or, start from the beginning again, going through the whole book. Trust me, God will show you something new, or many new things, through an old story. Each time this happens, you will discover how exciting the journey of being a treasure hunter is! God’s Word contains ‘fossils’ of wisdom that are embedded in and seen through the Rock: Jesus Christ.

The truth is, God has preserved His word for thousands of years, because in it we can discover his heart.

Food for thought: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
Matthew 13:44-46

Fun facts: The study of fossils is called paleontology. Fossils are made when an object is buried under sediment (like mud or sand). This sediment is compressed over time, forming sedimentary rock. Water will fill the gaps left behind by the object after it rots away, slowly depositing minerals that harden to become a different composition of rock from the surrounding sedimentary rock creating a fossil. There are fossils of animals, fish, plants, bacteria, fungi, and foot prints. The first fossils were recorded in writing as early as 570 B.C.

Photo by: Kari Wiseman – Fossils found among the rocks