A seminar leader once placed a large jar next to a pile of rocks and asked how many rocks would fit in the jar. Then he piled as many in as he could and asked if the jar was full. The audience said yes. So he took a bucket of gravel and poured that in until it filled the empty spaces. He asked again if it was full and everyone said yes. Then he took a bucket of sand, poured it in until the gaps between the gravel were filled. The audience again said the jar was now full, until he poured two litres of water in too.
‘There’s a lesson in this for our lives,’ he said. ‘You’ve got to put first things first. If I’d put the other stuff in first I’d never have got the rocks in.’
That wise observation resonates with something Jesus said about the meaning of life. ‘Put God first and do what he wants, and all the other things will fall into place.’