A Gem of a Life

Ever had hot water spilled on you? Had salt enter a wound? Rubbed your skin with sand paper? Broken a bone? If you answered YES to any of these, then you have something in common with an EMERALD. Sort of.

I LOVE emeralds! They are perhaps my favorite of earth's exquisite gems. But until recently, I will have to admit that I have taken for granted the detailed process that must happen in order for an emerald to become...an emerald.

Without beryllium combining with aluminum, silicone and oxygen and merging with the fluorescence of chromium and vanadium in a sequence of unusual geologic conditions and hot water (yep, that's right), emeralds would remain insignificant. Just a metamorphic blob of granite.

I know that's a mouthful, but the complex process of forming an emerald is nothing to sneeze at! The rock source before it is really an emerald is found at some of the deepest points of the earth where the magma joins forces with other types of rocks and minerals. Read more in this incredible article by Answers in Genesis HERE.

 In other words, it has experienced 

a fiery journey. 

(You know what that's like?)

It's heated and mixed with salt and then is cruelly crushed into a shale-like substance. More excruciating pressure combines this with a different shape rock. Incredible is this process and not unlike those we experience as humans.

If we allow Him, God will waste nothing we have gone through. If we give him our scars, our hurts, our disappointments, our confusion, our pain, He will make ALL things beautiful.

"You will also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God." (Is. 62:3)

What are you struggling with today? Do you feel like your very 

soul is eroding? Is the pain (physical, mental or emotional) just too 

much? Do you carry around the wound of sin? Of hurt? Of 

memories you would rather 

forget? Is your reality right now 

a crushing pressure without an 

end in sight?


God is a resourceful God. 

What has happened or is 

happening in your life is being 

used to form you 

into an exquisite gem - one that 

fits beautifully into the workings of His eternal kingdom.


Most of the breathtakingly beautiful things we see with our eyes 

have been through a process of eroding, molding, fracturing, 

scouring, scalding, pressuring, dissolving only to be remade. In the 

making of an emerald, "fractured rocks are 

dissolved in heated water and mixed with other ingredients." 


The same thing applies to us: 


It is in the essence of who we are becoming as we (our flesh, our 

will, our wants and desires) are dissolved into God's image and 

purpose where beauty and life collide in resounding marvel!!

"And in HIM you have been made complete...." (Col. 2:10a)