Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Multi-Faceted

As I’m outdoors watering my flowers, a ray of sunlight catches my left hand, and the light reflects off my wedding rings. I pause a moment and turn my hand back and forth, watching the colors of the reflected light. Depending on which way I turn my wrist and which facet shines back the sun’s light, I see different colors: warm orange, bright red, cool blue and green, bright yellow, deep lavender, and bright-as-the-sun white.
I’m amazed at the beauty of all these colors reflecting off a gem far smaller than the nail on my pinkie finger. When I think about how the diamond was formed—carbon buried far below the earth’s surface exposed to tremendous heat and pressure—I’m even more amazed. How God can take a common element and craft a precious stone that endures and provides such beauty is beyond my understanding. Once the diamonds are mined from the earth, trained professionals shape them, cutting all the different facets that allow the small stone to reflect the colors of the rainbow.

I don’t understand the physics behind all the different facets on a diamond reflecting brilliant colors. But I do understand this is something precious, something to appreciate and enjoy.

I finish watering my flowers and go back into the house. I think about the differing reflections off the facets on my diamond. Isn’t this how God works in the lives of believers? God is so complex, so multi-faceted, that none of us can fathom everything about Him. Yet we each have God’s light shining into our lives, and we reflect that light back for others to see.

One person may understand a degree of God’s love and reflect God’s warm glow to others. Another person may allow God’s joy to shine brightly in His life. Some reflect compassion or faithfulness. Looking within the church, one can see a rainbow of colors reflecting God’s light. All reflect His light, even though the colors may differ. Just like ordinary carbon eventually becomes a diamond, so ordinary people willing to follow their Savior reflect His glory. Only when those ordinary people allow God to form their character do the various reflections on our multi-faceted God come together. Only with God’s help can so many different people with differing ideas learn to reflect God’s glory in unison, sparkling like a precious diamond for the world to see.

I Corinthians 12: 4-6 "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men."

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