Pearls Before Breakfast

In April, The Washington Post published an article entitled Pearls Before Breakfast. The article is about an expirement that was done in a Washington, D.C. train station. Joshua Bell, one of the world's most talented violinists, started playing his Stradivarius (valued at $3.5 million) at 7:51 A.M. He played for 43 minutes, to 1,097 passers-by. The results?

In the three-quarters of an hour that Joshua Bell played, seven people stopped what they were doing to hang around and take in the performance, at least for a minute. Twenty-seven gave money, most of them on the run -- for a total of $32 and change. That leaves the 1,070 people who hurried by, oblivious, many only three feet away, few even turning to look.

What about us? Do we ignore surpassing beauty, hurrying along to make it to work, missing what God has laid out for us?

To hear a good sermon based on this event, listen to Andy McQuitty's sermon on May 13, 2007. You can stream the audio here or download it here.