Last week we considered the idea that ‘God is making a
masterpiece’ as Mark Roberts notes. There are many layers to each of us and
they are being changed and transformed day by day. Hawk Nelson, in his
contemporary Christian song Diamonds
agrees. He sings, “He's making diamonds, diamonds/Making diamonds out of
dust/He is refining and in His timing/He's making diamonds out of us.”
I think it is reassuring to think that God is ‘making
diamonds’ from the layers of ‘stuff’ that we accumulate in our lives and in our
hearts and minds. Incidentally, diamonds do not start as coal (I know, I was
surprised, too). They are made from the element carbon under extreme pressure.
Coal is also formed under pressure, and includes organic components that diamonds
don’t. Diamonds are formed, according to Geology.com at “very high temperatures and pressures. These
conditions occur in limited zones of Earth's mantle about 90 miles below the
surface where temperatures are at least 2000 degrees Fahrenheit.” Diamonds can
also form where one layer of the earth’s crust goes under another (subduction)
and by (or sometimes in) meteors.
It takes the correct combination of carbon, pressure, and
temperature to make a diamond. It happens, sciencing.com tell us, when the “carbon atoms bond together
in…a particular way that lets them share electrons--a regular,
three-dimensional geometric pattern that, if left to grow without interference,
produces large, pure diamond crystals.” Science can now make synthetic diamonds using similar pressure and temperature
processes.
Even after the diamond is in your hand, it’s not done. It
takes time to make the chunk of rock formed by heat and pressure into a
sparkling gem. Rough diamonds are nice stones, but not something you’ll want to
show off in a ring, necessarily. It takes a master craftsman to turn that rock
into a polished diamond fit for a piece of jewelry.
It takes time, and work, to change us into the beautiful diamond
masterpiece God plans. Mandisa, another contemporary Christian artist sings, “my
God's not done/Making me a masterpiece/He's still working on me/He started
something good and I'm gonna believe it/He started something good and He's
gonna complete it.” (Unfinished)
On those days when I feel, as Nelson says, “I'm in the fire
in above my head/Being held under the pressure don't know what'll be left.” It
is then that “I'll surrender to the power
of being crushed by love/Till the beauty that was hidden isn't covered up.”
The jeweler knows how to chip away at the stone until the
beauty is revealed. We don’t like that chipping away process. It’s not easy to
surrender, even to God’s love. We want too much to believe that WE can MAKE it OK. Our world tells us that we are 'in charge of our own destiny'. God's love says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest". (Matthew 11:28)
We have to let the Master Jeweler work. Ultimately, we’ll be
glorious diamond masterpieces. Even now, God sees us as that jewel, because God
knows that is what we are. I have to remind myself that ‘I’m just unfinished.”
Diamonds are formed by pressure. Are you under pressure
today? Can you believe that God is making a diamond with that pressure?
Does it comfort you to know that God already sees you as a
completed masterpiece and flawless diamond?
