Gem mining leads to self discovery!

I'll just jump right into explaining the title here. Sunday my wife and I went to a gem mine about 30 minutes from home. We had a good time sifting through the creek hunting for small gemstones, and even going through the bucket of dirt we bought. So we came home with a small bag of semi precious stones. Which lead me to go hunting for the rock tumbler I had years ago. Going through all these boxes searching for that, and all of it's peices, I came across a box with a lot of random junk. In the bottom of this box I found a pocket sized New Testament I had years and years ago. I mean we are talking probably between 15 and 20 years ago I had this. So it has been stored up in this box for all these years, and I pulled it out. Blew the dust off and began thumbing through it. Much to my surprise there were verses I had highlighted all that time ago. I had apparently read more than I had previously thought. Here are some of the verses I had highlighted:
Romans 12:14-15 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
John 11:25-26 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Philippians 4:13 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Not an in depth study, but it came as a surprise to me. I had forgotten all about reading those. Just shows what we think we know best, ourselves, sometimes we don't know them so well at all. I am quite sure I didn't have a full understanding back then, otherwise I would have repented and put my trust in Him long before I did. This also demonstrates God's perfect timing for everything. He did not mean for me to become a christian back then, there must have been something that happened in the time that lapsed that helped mold me into the person He wanted me to be when I was reconciled. I am just excited to see what the next step He has for me is.
Another note I thought of from the gem mining: We spent several hours sitting in the creek sifting through dirt and sand hunting for small gemstones. I had the thought, what if Jesus' righteousness could be applied to that creek bed like it has been in our own lives? The creek would look like a stained glass window. No dirt or sand on the bottom, just shiny sparkling gems of every color. The radiance coming from that creek would be so bright we probably couldn't look directly at it in full sunlight. Of course this creek doesn't exist, but that is what happens to us. We are credited with His righteousness, which is so brilliant we can't even imagine the full scope of the glory. The TV show Wretched with Todd Friel might refer to that as "a really lame sermon illustration", but i thought I'd throw it in there anyway.