More Precious than Diamonds ............. Parables 771

December 23, 2002

This holiday season at least three advertisements are telling us “diamonds are forever.” One comes from the De Beers company urging us to buy sparkling gems for our loved ones. Another is a James Bond movie title, also involving jewels made from carbon under pressure. A third, I kid you not, is a dating service, no doubt using this title to offer possibilities to their potential customers.

The fourth is more startling — it is a new trend in the funeral business. LifeGem Memorials offer to take the cremated remains of loved ones (animal or human) and turn the ashes into artificial diamonds. One news headline said this gives the “dearly departed a chance to sparkle forever.” Already, customers are wearing these stones as rings and necklaces.

In my mind, remembering those who died is important, but wearing compressed and recycled body parts on a chain is a bit much. Even so, I realize many will quickly sign up for these “keepsakes that can be handed down from generation to generation.”

This latest gem-making proposal sent me to my electronic Bible to do a word search for “diamonds.” I discovered that out of all the jewels listed in the Bible, this one seemed missing. The Old Testament priest wore a breastplate with twelve stones, including a ruby, topaz, beryl, turquoise, sapphire, emerald, jacinth, agate, amethyst, chrysolite, onyx, and jasper, all mounted in gold settings. No diamonds.

Revelation in the New Testament describes God’s heavenly city as shining “with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal” with gates of pearl and a street of gold, transparent like glass. It also says the foundations of the walls are made of “jasper” and are layered with other gems like sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, carnelian, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth and amethyst. No diamonds in that list either, but I wondered if the names hid them, like all precious gems are hidden. After checking various sources, I discovered that “jasper” is a transliteration from a Greek word that actually refers to a completely clear diamond!

So the walls of the heavenly city will be made of diamonds. However, are those walls all that is left of the dead? Not so. The same chapter says this city “will not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb (Christ) is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it . . . . The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

The people are inside the walls. So the walls are diamonds, not the people, and LifeGem didn’t do their homework. While diamonds may last a long time, the only way to get into this eternal city is through the Lamb, the One born in a stable over two thousand years ago.

So this Christmas, whether you are looking at the shine on a child’s face, or the sparkle of icicles, or the radiance of a gemstone, or the flash of reflections in crystal ornaments, think about “forever” in terms of the only One who can offer it, Jesus, the Lamb of God. Remember His promise to give us new and glorious bodies when we die, not recycled and compressed stone made from the carbon in our old bodies.

Also remember that figuratively speaking, His children are as diamonds — very precious — just as it says in Malachi 3:17: “And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.”

Remember also this old hymn that uses Malachi’s sparkling metaphor. You can find the music at http://www.sermonaudio.com/hymn_details.asp?PID=whenhecometh. Here are the words: “When He cometh, when He cometh, To make up His jewels, All His jewels, precious jewels, His loved and His own. Like the stars of the morning, His brightness adorning, They shall shine in their beauty, Bright gems for His crown. He will gather, He will gather the gems for His kingdom; All the pure ones, all the bright ones, His loved and His own. Little children, little children, Who love their Redeemer, Are the jewels, precious jewels, His loved and His own.”