Diamonds

Diamonds.  Everyone loves diamonds.  Precious and valuable stones that glisten in the light.  Why are they so valuable?  What makes them different from any other rock mined out of the earth?  Leonard Sweet recently offered an interesting commentary regarding this topic.  What follows are a few of my personal reflections that he provoked. 

Rarity, strength, and conditions.  Each of these are involved in the formation of a glorious diamond.  They are rare, diamonds are not everywhere.  Perhaps your local jewelry store would like you to believe that diamonds are for everyone, and everyone should have one.  But this does not indicate that they are common.  Their rarity originates from the amazing conditions of their formation.  It takes a great deal of depth and pressure to form a diamond.  

Diamonds are strong, considered to be the hardest of any known natural material on earth.  The original Greek term for diamond adamas, meaning “unbreakable” profoundly expresses this quality.  Perhaps their strength can be attributed to the pressure and heat a diamond is exposed to in its formation.  It is said that diamonds are formed deep within the earth, about 100 miles below your feet!  Near the earth’s core, diamonds are exposed to intense temperatures.  In the midst of this inferno, under the weight of this great pressure, diamonds come into being.  Yet, if diamonds are formed so deep within the earth, how is it that they can be found by the likes of you and me?  When the earth acts in its natural, violent way, such as volcanic eruptions and rattling earthquakes, these glistening wonders are expelled from within the earth’s belly and into the watchful gaze of an observant eye.  

Rarity, strength, heat, pressure, eruption, and quaking.  This is the stuff of diamonds.  It is also the stuff of Christianity.  Jesus once encouraged his followers to, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”  (Matthew 7:13-14).  The faithful Christian walk seems to be a rare sort of thing, not as common as modern culture would have us to believe.  

The modern faith seems to suggest that the marks of Christian faith are accompanied by ease and continual laughter.  I’m not against the reality of joy in Christ, but this modern narrative seems to omit the reality of pressure, eruption, and quaking which also accompany the Christian walk.  As with the diamond, you cannot have the beauty without the pressure; you cannot have the shimmer without the fire; you cannot have the experience without the eruption and quaking.  It is in the trials of life that Gods brings forth the diamonds of his fold.  Are you one of those diamonds in formation?  If you are, you must be willing to be exposed to the fire, pressure, eruption, and quaking.  When in the trail remember that God is near, forming us in its midst.  On the other side you will come out shinning, in the glorious rays of the Son.