A diamond is a thing of beauty. The more it sparkles, the more appeal it holds. The source of this desired sparkle is two fold; the many facets cut into its surface and light bouncing off those facets. This very basic and simple concept determine the value.
In the four declarative sentences above I stated a few facts about diamonds. This does not tell the whole story but is accurate information. Were I to repeat those sentences again, your attention may wane because you've already read it. You might skim over words rather than delve into them. You may say to yourself that you already know this information and do not need to read it again. It's official, you are bored with the diamond stuff and want to move on.
Had you kept an open mind, you may have seen tidbits of information in that short paragraph as an open door to research diamonds. There is a wealth of information, most of which was completely new news to me. For instance the multitude of color variations. In order of rarity, colorless diamond, by far the most common; followed by yellow and brown, the most common colors, then by blue, green, black, translucent white, pink, violet, orange, purple, and the rarest, red. I was not aware of orange or purple diamonds, were you? This is just the tip of the diamond information iceberg. All of which I would have cheated myself out of had I simply decided not to look deeper.
All too often, we react the same way when reading scripture, hear a sermon or attend a class. We decide we already know what it says, and just gloss over the surface, not looking for new nuggets of truth. This is having an unteachable mind and spirit. We shut the door on looking at anything from a different perspective because we are convinced we already know all we need to know.
In life, we can get by without knowing the mineral details of how diamonds are made, where they are mined, color and clarity unless we are in the diamond business. But in our spiritual lives, we are treading on dangerous territory when we decide we are wise and knowledgeable enough; scripture becomes so familiar that we no longer delve into it, searching out more of what God had to say. Stories from the Bible do not hold our attention because we've heard them before. We decide we do not need to attend a class because we've covered this subject before. This is a slippery slope, my friend.
Sadly, the people most likely to take that destructive course of action are the people that have little knowledge and those that think they have a lot of knowledge. The little knowledge people are ignorant; they do not know just how much they do not know. But they think they know; sadly, making life altering decisions based on their limited knowledge base.
The other end of the spectrum is held by those that think they've read or heard it all. Rather like that 'been there, done that' mentality. With time and education, you may learn all there is to know about diamonds but we will never learn all there is to glean from Bible study. God can use the simplest concept to teach us; Jesus used parables to reach people because it was in a context the people related to and could comprehend.
Diamonds have many facets cut on their surface which enables them to refract light better; the sparkle! Scripture is also multi-faceted, what you see in it one time may be completely different than what God shows you the next time you look at the same passage. Never assume you have gotten all you can get from a scripture or lesson. God will shine a new light on it and the real gems will come shining through brighter than any diamond ever could. IF, and that is with all capital letters, IF you have a seeking mind and teachable spirit. Never be complacent or happy with status quo when it comes to knowledge of God.
Stay teachable, Friends!
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