Years ago, I took a wonderful trip to Alaska. One of the highlights of that trip was visiting an old gold mine where we were able to learn and even experience all the processes of searching for gold. We were using a large sieve, and we would put into it a cup of dirt and then rinse the dirt with the water trying to find that little, tiny gold nugget. The rest of the stones were useless and were thrown away. When I think about that trip to Alaska, I better understand Jesus’ parable today: “the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full, they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away.” Sometimes I wonder why God allows evil to exist in our midst, but now I know. Evil always has existed and it will always be near to me. But I must make sure that I don’t belong to it. I want to be like that golden nugget and like those good fish that are collected and not thrown away.
