This parable helps to illustrate one of the principles taught in the 2025 Come, Follow Me lessons for Doctrine and Covenants section 18.
The parable of the stone
Elena spent her days playing outside her village on the edge of a vast savannah. She loved to watch the birds carry on conversations in the trees and the critters who scampered about in the underbrush below. One day, soon after a heavy rain had washed away part of a hillside near her home, she was inspecting the changes to her vast playground. Down at the bottom of the hill she noticed a rock that caught her attention.
Elena limped over to the spot where she saw the tip of the stone poking from the ground. Yes, Elena had a limp that made her move more slowly than others. She inspected the pointy part of the stone and was curious about what she saw, so she found a stick and started to dig around it until she could pry it from the ground. What she pulled up was a little smaller than her small fist. It was irregular in shape, and covered in mud, filth, and decaying grass. But she saw potential, so she took her stone home to clean it up and see what was underneath the debris.
To her surprise her stone cleaned up pretty well. It was mostly clear, like a quartz, but really hard. If she held it up to the light just right it all but sparkled. Elena was enthralled with her new find. She tucked it away in the corner of her room right next to her bedroll. Each day she would take it out to look at it and hold it up to see if she could discover anything new in its depths.
For years Elena kept her stone around, sometimes out in the open and sometimes in a box. When she was older and more concerned with the cares of life, the importance of her stone faded, and it became just a rough clearish stone she had discovered as a child. She really didn’t think much of it any more. When she became old enough to consider going to school, she needed some travel money. Of all the things she possessed, her stone was the only thing she thought might bring a few dollars to help her get to her new school. With the hope of being able to sell it for enough money she took her stone to town to a dealer of pretty rocks.
The dealer she showed the stone to didn’t want to pay her very much for it, but when she was reluctant to let it go for so little the dealer upped the price enough that she was willing to part with it. Elena never saw the stone she sold again.
The dealer of rocks was curious about this new piece of inventory, so he took it to a jeweler to have it appraised. The jeweler asked where the man had gotten this particular stone, only to be told that some girl had brought it in. That’s all he knew. To her it was just a pretty stone. The jeweler inspected the stone and told the dealer that what the girl had found was a large diamond. True, there were imperfections and it wasn’t ideal, but it was still valuable. Parts of it would have to be chipped off to find the best cut of the stone.
The jeweler happened to be connected to the nation’s royal family and suggested the dealer contact the royal jeweler for his appraisal. Long story short, the stone was purchased, cut, and polished by the royal jeweler. After a great deal of work the stone Elena found in the mud at the bottom of the hill by her home became the center stone for the queen’s favorite piece of jewelry. With proper handling and treatment it had become of almost inestimable worth and was the pride of the royal family.
I said that Elena never saw her stone again. Well that isn’t exactly true. She did see the stone, but she never knew that what she parted with as just a pretty rock she found in the dirt, with proper attention paid to it was the glorious stone worn by her queen, and was of tremendous worth.
Moral of the story
We are told in Doctrine and Covenants 10 that “the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.” We aren’t told why, only that He sees our worth. Look at verses 10-13 of section 10.
10 Remember the of is great in the sight of God;
11 For, behold, the Lord your suffered in the flesh; wherefore he the of all men, that all men might repent and unto him.
12 And he hath again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of .
13 And how great is his in the that !
Verse 10 – The worth of souls is great, even if we don’t see it.
Verse 11 – God was willing to suffer death in the flesh; and he was willing to suffer the pain of all men, just so they could repent and come to him.
Verse 12 – The purpose behind his resurrection was again to bring all men to him on conditions of repentance.
Verse 13 – How great is His joy in each soul that repents. He obviously see the rewards of repentance that we don’t yet comprehend.
Christ was willing to suffer all things because of the worth of each and every single soul. To us we are often seen as just a dirty stone covered in dirt, grass, and bugs, found in a field of unimportance. But to God we are of inestimable worth. When we think of the worth of Christ as our Savior we recognize him as God’s beloved Son, yet there were those who thought him not only common, but worthy of death in the worst possibly manner.
In mortality we are too often guilty of judging the worth of others by superficial standards. They may come from common ancestry, common places, or common situations. How often are we like Elena who looked upon and admired the beautiful jewel around the neck of her queen, and was completely unaware that she had been the one to discover it. She just couldn’t see past the surface of the stone to see its inherent worth.
To God we are worth everything He has to offer to redeem us from our current situations. He is willing to chip away our rough patches, polish us, refine us, and set us as one of His prized jewels. He sees in us our potential, not just our current circumstances. To Him we are glorious and worth any sacrifice to redeem. We are His children, the children of God, and as such are capable of becoming like our Father. Our current condition and circumstances are immaterial, for our inherent worth is priceless, despite our mud-caked exterior. You might say that to Him each of us is His pearl of great price.
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