Sometimes I am reminded of just how blessed I am to live among and interact with some pretty amazing people. Recently I read the scripture about the day when" God will make up his jewels" (see the full scripture and links below). And lately I have felt very much like I’m living in a Tiffany & Co. jewelry store for all the jewel-like people in my life. Sometimes in weakness, I get annoyed by that and start to play the negative-comparison game. But the nice thing about living in Tiffany's that is that the more you are blessed by jewel-like people, the more you see jewel-potential in others. Even harsh, unhappy, or insecure people start to look more like rough oysters hiding pearls or geodes rather than rocks.
I think is why God’s view of us is so reassuring. We may be hung up on the rough, dull, or even sharp exteriors that may never go away during this life as effects from poor choices, addiction, depression or other mental/emotional illness. Some of these often look more like sin or weakness rather than actual illness. All those limitations, flaws and personal issues are just the ugly oyster shell hiding a pearl, or the rather boring or unattractive, outer shell of a geode. And the whole time God has got to be smiling - excited for the big reveal.
In some cases, people start out and seem to be dazzlingly righteous or spiritual or charitable their whole lives, while others take a while to polish up that shine. Still others won’t be cracked open until the next life when the their physical, mental or emotional limitations are removed. I think God has a special twinkle in his eye waiting for those ones. And truly - everyone has that divinity inside simply by being a child of God. There are no duds or plain rocks or mere gravel. The power of our Savior Jesus Christ and his atonement will eventually reveal our hearts - our inner jewel. Maybe that is why God can smile more and stress a lot less instead of having an eternal anxiety attack. He is just polishing and tumbling his “precious stones” and feeding sand to his oysters. He’s not pulling his hair out wondering what happened to all of his kiddos and why does he seem to have a load of pea gravel instead of the Tiffany store shipment he thought he ordered. Nope. What we may see as a load of plain pebbles, turns out is really a bunch of Tiffany-store-quality jewels going incognito.
God will not mistakenly throw away a geode simply because it didn’t get cracked open in this life. He’s not going to pass over a pearl because it was trapped inside an oyster for all of mortality. He’s got this and sometimes it would behoove me to remember and acknowledge that - then go out into the world seeing geodes and pearl-percolating oysters instead of gravel and beach detritus. Take a lesson Trish - and remember that just because you don’t see breathtaking amounts of sparkling divinity in someone - including yourself - doesn’t mean it isn’t there. It most likely means that God is planning a pretty spectacular reveal for that person. So handle those oysters and stones with love, respect and kindness.
I have a family full of jewels and gems and so many supportive neighbors and friends that I consider to be gems - more than my share it seems. But I think we all have more jewels in our lives than we ever suspect. That is the miracle of God's love for his children - once you start wanting to look for it, you find gems everywhere you look - even in those geodes who don't know they are anything but plain, rough rocks. We are all children of God and that divinity makes us all his jewels.
Both the Bible and Book of Mormon share God's jewel-like view of his children: "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/3-ne/24?lang=eng
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/ot/mal/3?lang=eng
