A recent New York Post article titled ‘Cookie Monster’ Gemstone Found in Brazil Shocks has now gone viral. It seems that a man named Mike Bowers has now received multiple offers of $10,000 or more for his rare find.
That find is an agate gemstone unearthed in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, which bears a striking resemblance to Cookie Monster of “Sesame Street” fame.
As the picture indicates, once the volcanic rock had been sawn apart, the interior blue quartz crystals and accompanying smile-like void was found to look just like the famous little monster with the great big sweet tooth!
That find is an agate gemstone unearthed in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, which bears a striking resemblance to Cookie Monster of “Sesame Street” fame.
As the picture indicates, once the volcanic rock had been sawn apart, the interior blue quartz crystals and accompanying smile-like void was found to look just like the famous little monster with the great big sweet tooth!
Little wonder that, playing off of the famous character, the article humorously begins with the words “C is for crazy.” What are the chances of such a thing?!
For his part, Bowers says he did not realize that Cookie Monster was so well known outside the United States. However, the Cookie Monster appears to be a part of the world cultural heritage, as the image was quickly recognized by most everyone who saw it, even in Brazil.
Bowers went on to tell Live Science that it is somewhat uncommon to find a face shape in agates, adding that the gemstone is even rarer because the face is a mirror image on both sides of the sliced stone.
The article further explains that agates, which are a type of quartz, are formed within cavities of volcanic rocks. Their variations in colors are determined by the chemical impurities in silicon dioxide and how the crystals are spaced.
Bowers did not technically discover the gemstone himself. He is a collector who acquired it from a Brazilian gemologist, Lucas Fassari in November of 2020, who had earlier picked it up in Soledade, apparently a hotspot for precious stones.
Despite the enticing offers, Bowers said he plans to hang on to the remarkable rock for now. When asked if he plans to sell, he responded by saying, “It is totally unique and awesome to see everyone loving this stone as much as we do.”
One last note: The picture of the gemstone went viral when Jacqueline Antonovich, a professor and historian at Muhlenberg College, posted a photo of it to Twitter over the weekend. Since then, it has garnered over half a million likes. Perhaps it was inevitable, then, that very soon thereafter, even the blue beast himself would chime in. “Me no geologist, but me think dat rock look a lot like me...” Cookie Monster admitted.
As I read this article, I was amazed at how much the image within the rock does indeed look like the Cookie Monster. I was also reminded that all of us are image bearers. The Bible tells us that we are each created in the image of Almighty God.
According to Genesis 1:27: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” It seems to me, therefore, that part of what we were each created to do is to glorify God by reflecting His image.
Of course, that raises a question or two, does it not? Just how good of a job do you and I each do in reflecting our Heavenly Father?
Jesus, Who better reflected the Father than anyone else, calls those of us who are His followers to be intentional about doing this very thing. In Matthew 5:16, He tells us to “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
In like manner, in 1 Corinthians 15:49, the Apostle Paul tells us that we once bore the image of the earthly, but now, we “bear the image of the heavenly.” To this, in Colossians 3:10, he adds the reminder that those of us who follow Christ have taken off our “old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
And again, in Ephesians 4:24, he further states that we are to “put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
The fact that we are so often admonished in the New Testament to reflect the image of our Heavenly Father obviously means that we are capable of doing so to either a lesser of greater degree. When we fall under scrutiny by the world, therefore, may we be found to bear a reasonable likeness of God up above.
For most assuredly, if someone discovers such a likeness in us, it will mean far more to them in the long run than if they merely stumbled upon some earthly gemstone looking like a fictional entertainment character, no matter how much value the world ascribes to it!
SOURCE:
https://nypost.com/2021/01/24/rock-that-looks-like-cookie-monster-could-be-worth-more-than-10k/.
SEE ALSO:
https://www.livescience.com/colletor-finds-rare-cookie-monster-rock.html;
https://www.foxnews.com/science/cookie-monster-gemstone-brazil-shocks-viral;
and https://twitter.com/MeCookieMonster/status/1353820681667010560.
SCRIPTURES SOURCES:
https://biblehub.com/genesis/1-27.htm;
https://biblehub.com/matthew/5-16.htm;
https://biblehub.com/niv/1_corinthians/15-49.htm;
and https://biblehub.com/ephesians/4-24.htm.