Today I was thinking about mining again. One thing that we
do to limit the amount of material we “process” is “classify” the gravel. This
is done with water, a bucket and a “classifying” mesh. The mesh looks like a
gold pan with holes in it and fits into a 5 gallon bucket. You dump a shovel of
gravel into the mesh and shake it, kind of like a steering wheel on a bus and
is affectionately known as “driving the bus” in some circles.
Anyway the idea is get the fine gravels into the bucket and
the large rocks get tossed out. The reason you do this is most “placer” gold
has been eroded off the mountain and has been crushed and made into fine
material. Because of this you don’t need to deal with the big rocks, panning
them out only consumes time. But one thing has always bothered me about this,
what if you have a large nugget that does not pass through the mesh?
As I think of this I also was thinking about the Parable of
the Wheat and Tares in Matthew 13:24-30 where the enemy comes in and tosses
weeds into the crop of wheat that was just planted. The servant asks if he
should go pull weeds and is told by the master to let them grow and “classify”
them at harvest so not to pull out good wheat.
This makes sense and is much like what we do when
classifying gravels to get down to where the gold will be, but at the same time
when we are focused on sifting out the junk are we missing a nugget? This is
why the master did not have them pull the weeds early on, otherwise they may
get some good stuff.
Right now I am trying to tie the two analogies together and
am having a difficult time. Both are “classifying” bad material for good, but
my mining is dealing with something that could contain good, while the mature
weeds contain no good. Guess the point is with the younger weeds not being
pulled to save the good is a point, but the odds of getting a nugget is most of
the time not worth the time sifting for hours through half in or larger rocks.
The odds are such that it is most likely not there, hence why we “classify”.
In writing this the one concern I have with the master
letting the weeds grow is from another parable of the seeds sown, found just
before this in Matthew 13:1 – 23. Could these seeds be the same as the ones
thrown around the thorns where the enemy chokes them out? Or since they were
planted in a field of mature thorns the had no hope? Also, does that mean the
weeds planted with the wheat are doomed or might they become wheat some time?
Based on the failure of Alchemy to produce gold I wonder if making
wheat from a weed is possible. But with GOD anything IS possible!!