Diamonds, without question among the most precious stones in the world, recently proved to be a source of personal fascination after I purchased a book by Matthew Hart simply titled, Diamond. The only reading I had previously done with regards to this subject was a Hardy Boy mystery that centered on such a stone.
I quickly discovered that a diamond found in its natural state is just called ‘rough’. Admittedly, I naively assumed that diamonds were bright, shiny and multi-faceted at the time of discovery and they were merely cut and polished to improve their already lustrous appearance. They do glitter in the rough, but that was the extent of my accurate assumptions.
A diamond in the rough is mixed potential and risk since it is impossible to know what will transpire when the stone is polished or sawn. A diamond may be either clear or colored (called a “fancy”) and is worth considerably more if colored deeply versus lightly. A profound worry for a diamond cutter is that his stone will lose its color during the faceting process. A widespread practice is to polish a ‘window’ into the stone to assess the interior before cutting.
I read about a South African named Brian Menell, who bought a valuable blue diamond. It was to be a 6-carat stone worth $260,000 a carat. It started as a strong blue but suddenly, as the cutter added a facet, the color changed to light blue, dropping the value to $40,000 a carat! He watched $1.3 million evaporate before his eyes! As it turned out, he was fortunate. When the next facet was added, the color flowed back in, restoring the value that he had thought lost forever!
It is unfortunate that most people finish life just as ‘rough’ as they began. This does not detract from their value or potential, it merely reflects the apprehension that we have about change. We know that small adjustments in life make a tremendous difference, yet we put it off. Tomorrow we’ll start walking, lose some weight, stop splurging, pay off some bills and give up smoking to save our lungs. We could even treat our spouse better to improve our marriage and attend church next Sunday to improve our quality of life.
But if we’re going to do what’s necessary to make life better, we have to endure having the ‘rough’ness removed. Many people quit coming to church when they find that God actually requires something of them, forgetting what was required of Him. They want to shine without having the ‘rough’ taken off.
Job, a man who lost everything, sat in sackcloth and ashes and made a statement that reflected his faith in God’s wisdom. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” His endurance was ultimately rewarded by a complete doubling of his fortunes.
In my life I’ve sometimes felt the cut God was making in my ‘rough’ was more than I could handle. With each added facet I felt more of my ‘color’ draining away! Sickness, family difficulties, job stress, disappointments and financial pressure leave us feeling drab and colorless. No longer a ‘fancy’, we feel overwhelmed. But this is not the end!
We must allow God to continue His work, making way for the color that will come rushing back in when He has completed his ‘perfect work’. He never stops cutting when you feel the color has fled forever. He keeps cutting until it returns!
I’ve known people who were bound to drugs and alcohol, others merely lost and lonely, each their own mix of risk and potential. I’ve watched in wonder as they reached for God and He reached for them in turn, beginning to cut and polish their lives, turning the ‘rough’ into a brilliantly undeniable reflection of His Love.
In a diamond, there are absolutely no accidental cuts. Every facet is precisely engineered to reflect the light, even the hidden angles you can’t see! So if you’re one who has questioned whether your life, with its rough edges, has value and meaning, the answer is YES! As a matter of fact, the Master Polisher agrees… and He died for the chance to work a miracle in you!
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