Chapter 5
Viewed Through Expert Eyes
Let us cling
to him and never stop trusting him [Jesus]. This High Priest of ours
understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testing we do, yet he
did not sin. (Hebrews 4:14–15 NLT)
God acts in the role of Treasure Seeker while searching
us out, but He also is a gemologist and master jeweler. Gemologists primarily
concern themselves with a gemstone’s characteristics. In what condition has the
stone been found? What are its attributes and inclusions? A gemologist also may
sell gemstones and provide appraisal services. Jewelers, on the other hand,
focus primarily on the settings and design in which a gemstone is placed. Some
jewelers also study gemology to become familiar with the properties of the
gemstones they handle.
A jeweler typically serves in an apprenticeship while
learning the craft. The Jewelers of America require jeweler apprentices to pass
written and “bench” tests on four levels, with certification being obtained on
each level. The fourth level of certification is the Certified Master Bench
Jeweler (CMBJ).1 The master jeweler is a skilled artisan who is an
expert in his or her field. He or she appraises, sets or resets, cleans,
designs settings for unset stones, redesigns old settings, sizes, and even
custom designs pieces upon request.
An artist has a trained eye to see space, color, texture,
and groupings to know what is aesthetically pleasing. A woodworker values the
grain and characteristics of the wood and knows how to shape, turn, and join
the wood together to make a beautiful piece. So it is with the Master Jeweler.
God delights in our makeup, much as a master jeweler appreciates the gemstones
and jewelry with which he works.
God Releases Our Radiance
Just as a master jeweler holds a stone under his scope to
see its clarity and beauty, our Master Jeweler can look into our hearts and see
our true nature. When we first come to Him, it is of a dark and cloudy
composition. But when we enter into a relationship with Him, the murkiness is
replaced with brilliance and clarity.
Our
gemstone nature is much like a mirror. A mirror cannot create its own light
source; rather, it bounces back light reflected into it. God designed us to
reflect God’s glory. When we do, sin is no longer obscuring the beauty God
instilled in us.
One of
the best examples of God’s glory literally being reflected is the story of
Moses on Mt. Sinai. He had been on the top of the mountain in God’s presence
while the Ten Commandments were being transcribed. How anyone even could bear
to be in the presence of such divinity and majesty and live to tell about it
still baffles me. Surely the Lord had to hold back His true essence in order
for Moses to be able to withstand it.
When
Moses descended the mountain, his face still reflected God’s holiness. His
countenance shown so brightly that the Israelites were afraid to come near Him.
The Scriptures describe his face as “radiant” (Ex. 34:29). The word used here
for “radiant” is the Hebrew word qaran2, which means to shine or send out
rays. If you ever have tried to look at a bright sky with unprotected eyes, you
know how painful it can be. You can’t stand to do it for long. Moses’ face
shone like the sun.
David
recognized the amazing transformation that comes from abiding in God’s
presence. He wrote, “Those who look to him are radiant. Their faces are never
covered with shame” (Psalm 34:5). In the King James translation, the word is “lightened.”
It comes from the Hebrew word nahar3. Who better to
understand transformation than a humble shepherd boy who had been made into a
great king? God had raised David up from a humble status and made him a
brilliant jewel to shine before Israel.
Though
David made mistakes, he never lost his sense of awe regarding God, and David
felt humbled by how God covered up David’s shortcomings. One could turn to God
without shame, illuminated by knowing that He is a compassionate, loving, and
forgiving God.
Paul, in Hebrews 1:3, wrote about Jesus’ radiance: “The
Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being,
sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purifications
for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” In this
case, the word “radiance,” which is listed as “brightness” in the King James,
is the Greek word apaugasma4, which means reflected brightness. It can also mean shining
forth as rays shine forth from a light source.
Just as Jesus is an exact representation of his Father,
reflecting His radiance, we become an exact representation of Christ when we
commit to a relationship with Him. When we allow the Master Jeweler to take us
into His hands and begin transforming us, we take on His nature. The more we
imitate our heavenly Father, the source of this light, the more radiant we
become.
Matthew 5:14
speaks about this light, calling us the light of the world and a city on a hill.
Our radiance hurts the eyes of a darkened world. It draws some people to the
beauty they see. Others can’t tolerate its presence and seek to snuff it out.
He is Captivated by Our Beauty
My love for books began when I was a young child. My
father, whose formal education went no further than high school, was a
self-educated man who loved to read. His books and children’s books lined our
enclosed back porch. I grew up in the era of Dr. Suess and P. D. Eastman.
I fondly
remember my older sister, Vicki’s, and my excitement when a new children’s book
would arrive in the mail. My mother, never one to be extravagant with money,
had for some reason determined this particular splurge to be a good investment,
and for that I always will be grateful. I recall one particular children’s book
series we had on our shelves. These rather thick books contained fairytales,
fables, and children’s stories. Countless times I thumbed through them, reading
and rereading favorites from these beloved stories.
One of my favorites was The Plain Princess by
Phillis McGinley. The king and queen spoiled and pampered their only child,
Esmeralda, the story’s main character. She had everything a royal child
possibly could want: a beautiful palace to live in and charming dresses and
toys. As Esmeralda grew older, her parents struck an agreement that she should
marry a certain prince. But the prince took little interest in the princess
because she lacked one thing a princess should surely have—beauty.
Physicians
and wizards attempted a variety of remedies to improve her looks, but none of
those with whom their royal majesties consulted were able to change the
princess’s appearance. In desperation, the king and queen placed an ad in the
paper, offering a generous reward to anyone who could help.
A
widowed mother with five children answered this ad and brought Esmeralda home
to live in her house. She soon put the princess to work, having her help clean
the house and care for the children. The more the princess learned to take the
focus off of herself, the more attractive she became. By the end of the story,
Esmeralda had been transformed from plain to beautiful. The transformation was
not merely a surface alteration, but one that came from the inside out. She
learned to care for others besides herself.
By the
time Esmerelda returned to the castle, she was a lovely, changed woman. The
obvious moral of the story—beauty comes from within.
Exterior
beauty doesn’t impress God; it is what is on the inside that matters. Like the
Master Jeweler who sees the exceptional beauty of a stone, He is enraptured by
us. He wants to have an intimate relationship with us. Like a lover captivated
by his beloved’s beauty, He can’t take His eyes from us.
The
issue of whether Song of Solomon, written by King Solomon to the Shulamite
woman, is merely a sensual love poem or something much deeper, describing the
intimate and exciting relationship the Father longs to have with us, has long
been debated. I believe that the book, like many other Scripture passages,
holds a two-fold message. First, it details the very intimate relationship
between two lovers, and second, it details the intimate we relationship God
desires to have with us.
Chapter
4, verse 1 reads, “How beautiful you are, my darling! Oh, how beautiful! Your
eyes behind your veil are doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats descending
from Mount Gilead.” Much like Solomon and the Shulamite, our beauty so
captivates our lover that we take His breath away.
In the
movie Shallow Hal, the male lead
character played by Jack Black falls madly in love with a woman played by Gwyneth
Paltrow. He is smitten with her and, like the writer in Song of Solomon, gushes
to his friends about this woman’s beauty and lovely attributes. His friends
can’t make him see that the woman is actually grossly obese, and their
judgment, which is based on external appearances, causes them to view her as
both ugly and worthless.
Some
days I’m rumpled and bone-tired, with dark circles beneath my eyes. My face is
lined with age and fatigue. At my age, the beauty that once may have been there
now has faded considerably. And yet Jeff still will call me “pretty lady.”
Sometimes I think he needs to see an optometrist because I don’t think he’s
seeing all too clearly. He looks at me through rosy lenses.
True
love is like that, looking into the heart and holding the other person as dear
and lovely. This is the type of remarkable relationship the Father has with us.
He Recognizes Our Elegance
Dictionary.com
defines “elegance” as an elegant quality or a refinement. People who exemplify
elegance are in a class all their own. Culture, sophistication, beauty, and
charm together culminate into a unique aura called elegance. Women like
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, and Princess Diana
come to mind.
On the
other hand, I can think of many famous, beautiful women who do not embody
elegance. Some women, despite their looks and wealth, are actually very crass.
We read about their often-embarrassing exploits in the papers. Proverbs 11:22
cautions us, “Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman who shows
no discretion.”
Stanley
Marcus, in his book Quest for the Best,
defines elegance in this manner: “Elegance, to me, is a summary word denoting
the ultimate in beauty, craftsmanship, and quality—all put together with taste.
Elegance suggests selectivity, fitness, and authority—whether in decoration,
personal adornment, or manners.”5
Master
Jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé is renowned for designing elegant, golden jeweled
eggs for the household of Czar Nicholas of Russia. Each egg is an incredible
work of art in itself. The eggs’ beautiful, ornate exteriors are covered with
precious metals and enamel and are encrusted with priceless gemstones. Inside
of each egg is a surprise, often a masterpiece in miniature. Fabergé and his
team of craftsmen carefully designed and selected precisely the right gemstones
to adorn each unique egg. Each had to be fit for royalty. The care,
craftsmanship, and selectiveness Fabergé used when crafting each egg made his
name synonymous with luxury and elegance befitting royalty.
The
Master Jeweler sees in us exquisite elegance. He carefully hand-selected us,
His gemstones, as an adornment befitting a palace, and the king’s palace is
precisely where we will remain, a shining tribute to Him, magnifying His glory
for all eternity. Let us remember, then, while we remain in these fragile,
earthly vessels, always to conduct ourselves with restraint and refinement so
that others will be captivated by our unique aura of elegance and be drawn to
Him.
He is Convinced of Our Quality
“Your friend in the diamond business,” reads
the slogan for the Shane Company, a national jewelry chain. For a number of
years, the company’s slow-talking owner has appeared in radio ads promoting the
business’s quality and service. The company set itself apart from the average
jewelry store by claiming to avoid gimmicks, coupons, and sales. Instead, they
touted excellent everyday prices, quality, and service. Today, the Shane
Company has successfully branded itself as a trustworthy jeweler, a name
synonymous with superior gemstones.
John
Ruskin wrote: “Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of
intelligent effort. It is the will to produce a superior thing.”6 Quality
results from intentional, carefully-thought-out production and design.
During
the building of Solomon’s temple, King Solomon (1 Kings 5:17) decreed that only
the most costly stones were to be used for the temple’s foundation. The Hebrew
word yaqar7, which is used
in the passage, means costly. By dictating that only the most expensive stones
be used, Solomon knew he ensured that the selected stones would be the best of
the best. Every item that went into making the temple of the Lord was to be of
superior quality, making the structure of the temple itself an act of worship
to the heavenly king.
Like the
retail buyer who hand selects the fabrics and merchandise to be carried in his
chain of stores or the jeweler who insists on only purchasing the superior
grade of gemstones, God hand selected us and chose us from thousands of others.
He is confident that He has made an excellent choice, and well He should be,
for He is the one who designed and ordained our purpose from the onset.
Unfortunately,
many of us have difficulty believing we are indeed a quality gemstone. It is
one thing to be told we are an exceptional product and another entirely to
actually to believe it. Many women suffer from poor self-esteem. It only takes
one callous word or one seemingly insignificant incident for us to descend into
self-abasement. When we fall into these depressed patterns of thinking, we
really are lying to ourselves.
Self-loathing
grieves God, who wants only the best for us. Instead of self-abasement and
self-loathing, He envisions affirmation and joy. Our challenge, then, is to
remember that it’s not within God’s nature to make junk; therefore, we cannot
be what we often think we are.
Just as
God has instilled in us the best of the best, He also expects only the best
from us. First Corinthians 3:13 says, “His work will be shown for what it is,
because the day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the
fire will test the quality of
each man's work.” Does our work and our walk reflect the Master Jeweler’s
fineness? We should never forget to continue striving for excellence.
He Sees Beyond Our Flaws
The Master Jeweler
examines us with the eye of an expert. He clearly sees all of the lovely attributes
that make us so desirable: our radiance, beauty, elegance, and quality. But He
wouldn’t be an expert unless He also saw our weaknesses, including our flaws.
Though
the words “oversight” and “overlook” seem to hold nearly identical meanings,
they differ considerably. “Oversight” is when someone examines something but
misses a key factor. The person might have been distracted or careless when
doing the initial examination.
An
excellent example of this is the clearance rack at your local clothing store.
Many of us love a bargain, and you can’t beat the end-of-season clearance
deals. But you also have to be very careful when selecting clearance items. For
instance, you might find gads of one specific style and color in a blouse.
(What? You mean you don’t want that chartreuse size three blouse?) Or mixed in
with quality merchandise are sometimes irregular or damaged items. There have
been times when I’ve thought I’ve found a great bargain, only to arrive home to
find a pulled thread or missing button. Those instances were oversights on my
part. Great sale prices temporarily blinded me enough to make me overlook the
flaws.
But God
actually sees our flaws, and He purposely
overlooks them. We’ll talk more about this in a later chapter, but I think it
bears merit here, so we will examine why God overlooks them—why the one who is
without flaws is willing to overlook ours (Psalm 19:12).
First,
God overlooks our flaws because He doesn’t want our shortcomings to stand in
the way of our having a deep relationship with Him. Second, He knows that many
of these flaws have come about because of tough knocks we have been through in
life. They are a part of what makes us who we are.
J. B.
Yeats wrote, “Personality is born out of pain. It is the fire shut up in the
flint.”8 God knows our tough life experiences have an integral part
of our formation. They add to our beauty and can be
used to glorify God. He does not demand that they be eliminated because He
knows doing so will cause irreparable damage. Instead, He wants us to trust His
gentle touch and expertise as He works to make us into the treasure He knows we
can be.
{Call-out Box:
Treasure
and Gemstone Trivia
England
passed a law in 1283 that made it legal for only those of noble birth to wear
jewels.9}
Points to Ponder
1. How does it make you feel to
consider God as a Master Jeweler?
2. Can you think of any other scriptural examples of God’s glory and
radiance being revealed?
3. Have you ever met someone who
reflects God’s radiance?
4. How does it make you feel to know that God sees us as beautiful no
matter what we look like on the inside or outside?
5. What are some examples of
Jesus reflecting His Father’s radiance?
6. It is not in God’s nature to make anything lacking in quality. How
does knowing God made you make you feel?
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