Rockhounding is like treasure hunting, you never know what you will find. That's the true joy and challenge of rockhounding. Sometimes you search for a long time before you find treasure, and other times you barely get out of the car and there laying on the ground is exactly what you were looking for.
There are rockhounding books, forums, websites, Facebook pages, groups, clubs and more that will help you in your search for a new rock or mineral. The more you read, study, examine, ask questions and go searching the more you will find.
The expedition — the peace of spending hours out in nature walking and searching — is only matched by the sheer joy of actually finding that amazing thing you were looking for.
However, having read all the right books and joined all the right clubs is not enough. Rockhounding is mainly about exactly what the name implies: rockhounding. Looking and spending time in the field is where you will truly become a seasoned rockhound with treasures to prove your efforts were worthwhile.
As much as I enjoy rockhounding for geological treasures, as a Christian I find myself daily needing to seek out another kind of rock.
The Bible points to Jesus Christ being the rock we are to build our lives on. In both the Old and New Testaments, God makes it clear that our lives are unstable without the firm foundation of His transforming and grounding power. David understood this concept and wrote numerous times in the book of Psalms employing the imagery of God as our rock.
Psalm 18:2, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”
Even when life is a mess, when the world is falling apart around us, God remains our Rock, fortress and deliverer. Even when we lose sight of what’s truly important, when we become weighed down with the challenges of this life, God works to remind us that He is ever present.
As I wake my 3-year-old son up each morning, I am asked a very sincere and serious question, “Mommy, when will Jesus come back?” Or, “Mommy, can we pray for Jesus to come back soon? Cause I want to be with Him.”
My young son wants to rockhound for Jesus. He wants to sing songs, read stories and pray because he wants a relationship with Jesus Christ. He desperately wants to see Jesus face-to-face and play with Him, but he also enjoys the searching. Even at this young age, his heart longs to be surrendered to Jesus. It is a near-daily reminder to me that we are to be like little children, desiring and searching for Jesus with all our hearts.
The scriptures make it clear that our searching is never done in vain. You may come home empty-handed when searching for physical rocks here on earth, but you will never come away empty when searching for Jesus.
Jesus’ words to us in Matthew speak of this promise. Matt. 7:7 says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Jesus promises us that if we seek Him and spend time with Him on a regular basis, we are guaranteed to find Him. He doesn’t hide, rather He is ready and waiting to be found.
So, my question to you, as we begin 2025 is this: What do you want to find this year?
Will you search for something meaningful and life changing? Or are you satisfied with exactly where you are? Do you have goals for growth in your walk with Jesus this year? Are you ready to do some eternal rockhounding?
Jesus desires that we search for Him, that we spend time in the scriptures and learn about Him, that we talk with Him and let Him ground us on solid rock. If you firmly establish your life on Jesus this year, you are guaranteed to find a very precious Rock of eternal value.
