The Making of Diamonds: Under Fire (and Pressure)

I always had a thing for geology. I’m sure I know what you’re thinking. “You are another one of those rock nerds, aren’t you?”

Yep, but only because I see them as precious stones instead of rocks.

One of my most memorable trips in life was to the Smithsonian Museum in 2004. I had read about The Hope Diamond, researched this gem, and watched documentaries about this stone and there it was in a glass case at arm’s length right in front of me.

Leaning in to see this piece of history up close with my nose almost pressed against the case, but not too close as to get a free lecture about my “distance” from the security guard was so surreal.

To this day, I’m still in awe when I think about the moment I saw this beautiful stone in person, but a different kind of awe.

For a diamond to be THIS beautiful, what did it take?

Fire and pressure.

Honestly, I feel like I’m a lot like this diamond.

I have been under a lot of fire and pressure during my time here on Earth. Like you, life has thrown many things at me.

I’ve watched my family fall apart. At a young age, I took on the role of a mother as my mom went to work for the first time. I lost my dad to cancer.

To boot, while finally figuring out that I can create my dream career after working for others for nearly a decade (which is a painful first world problem to have), I experienced a lot of setbacks because I was uneducated about finances. Hey, you don’t know what you haven’t been taught, am I right? And believe it or not, I had accusations on a small and grand scale.

Like fire, these situations among other things attempted to consume my life, surrounding me to a point where I felt like there was no way out of a two-story burning building. However, the pressure and heat I’m still feeling to this day (in different areas of my life, course) is making me stronger each and every day, just like carbon’s transformation into a diamond over a long period of time (usually millions of years).

I know some of you have heard of this analogy before so I am going to add a Christian twist with a touch of nerdiness (where are my science geeks at?!) to it if you will.

Carbon has to constantly endure pressure from heat to be the beautiful diamonds they become.

However, what we forget is that for fire to keep burning, oxygen must be present. That oxygen for this diamond (me) is Jesus Christ. Although I’m standing in the fire and enduring the pressure, I know God is my oxygen. Just like God protected Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego from the fiery furnace, He’s keeping the fire burning for a reason: for me to become the diamond He wants me to be all while protecting me at the same time. I know that for as long as I live, this fire will never die.

I also know that the longer I’m in the fire, the more beautiful of a diamond I will become.

If you ever feel like you just can’t take the pressure/heat anymore, think about what your circumstance is teaching you.

Learn about how it’s keeping you alive, strengthening you, and transforming you. Trust the oxygen. Live it. Breathe it. And watch yourself turn into a beautiful diamond (in His image) that you are.

Talk to me…

In what ways have you gone through the making of a diamond?

Funny thing after writing this post, I realized my mom calls me “my diamond” from time to time.

And go figure for how I got to naming this blog. 🙂