In 2007, pro baseball pitcher Matt White had an aunt who had been struggling for years to make ends. When her health started to decline, she was forced to sell her fifty acres of property to pay for health care. As an act of kindness, Matt traveled to Massachusettes and bought the land from his aunt for the appraised value of $50,000. While exploring the land to see about building a house, he discovered outcroppings of stone ledges.
Matt contracted a geologist, who surveyed the land and informed him the stone was actually Goshen stone, a type of mica estimated to be about 400 million years old. This type of stone is useful for sidewalks, patios, and landscapes. At the time it sold for $100 a ton … and Matt White had about 24 million tons on the land. The appraised value on the surface was $50,000, but some experts estimated that the land was possibly worth up to $2 billion. The news prompted some of White's teammates to nickname him "The Billionaire." During his first year of operation, White's family-run business made $600,000. According to the official website for White's company, Swift River Stone, even years later, sales appear to remain steady.
Possible Preaching Angles: (1) The value of Christ—he is the rejected stone that becomes the chief Cornerstone; (2) The value of people made in God's image—Jesus looked beyond the surface appearance and saw the great value of people made in God's image. As the church, we must also see the dignity and value beneath the surface of the people around us.
