The speaker at the podium pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed Mason jar and set it on a table next to him.  Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar.

When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?”  Everyone in the audience said, “Yes.”  Then he said, “Really?”

He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel.  Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.  Then he smiled and asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?” 

By this time the audience was catching on.  “Probably not,” one of them answered.  “Good!” he replied.  And he reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand.  He started dumping the sand in and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. 

Once more he asked the question, “Is this jar full?”  “No!” the audience shouted in unison.  Once again he said, “Good!”

Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim.  Then he looked up at the group and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”

One person raised his hand and said, “The point is, it took all kinds of elements to fill the jar to the top. Each element was needed to succeed.”

“Exactly,” the speaker replied, “that’s the point.  This illustration teaches us that each person is important, as long as they give to their ability toward a God-honoring goal.”

A sign of spiritual maturity is when you willingly give with a true spirit of generosity.