"Pick Your Diamonds, Pick Your Pearls"

This morning I woke up to the alarm ring tone on my cell phone; I have it programmed to play Macy Gray's, "There is Beauty in the World."  I had to laugh as I listened to it because I went to bed last night thinking exactly the opposite. Sometimes tragedy surrounds us; loneliness, broken dreams, abandoned hopes, financial woes, death, rebellious children and yes, shoe chewing puppies. Everything was crowding in on me and I wasn't in the best of moods but I vowed to wake up in the morning with a better attitude by choosing a higher altitude! The only higher altitude I know of is to spend some quite time with God.  The kids were all asleep, including the four legged one.  The house was quite and so I had a little chat with God.  It wasn't a formal prayer; just a heartfelt conversation with my father.

 After praying I searched for a reply in his word, and then I spent a little time in a book I'm reading by Gary Chapman.  The author highlighted a passage in Philippians to illustrate a point that he was making about reading our Bible as a way of talking with God.  He used the scripture Philippians 4:4, "Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice"  The author had asked God how someone is supposed to rejoice always!  When my puppy chewed up my favorite pair of shoes, my first thought was not, "Praise you God for my blessed puppy!"  When your bank account is overdrawn, your marriage falls apart or your loved one dies, it's a little hard to imagine how to find the breath, the solid ground, to rejoice in the Lord.  But that is the key, "in the Lord;" life will always set you back on your heals.  It will always throw the succor punches that steal away your ability to breath.  It is ever changing, never reliable, a thief and a liar, rarely joyous and best described as the stomach plummeting, downward drop of the Tower of Terror (without all of the pleasurable anticipation and hoopla of the real ride at Disney World).

Spoken simply, life stinks, but none of that describes God.  He is constant, unchanging, unsinkable, unwavering, all knowing.  He is as dependable as the day is inevitable.  So although life may not be worthy of rejoicing, in the midst of your storms, if you turn your thoughts toward the Lord and rejoice in his goodness and his love for you then there is nothing else; no storm clouds, no strong winds, no driving rain, just the peace in the eye of the storm.  The problems don't go away but you are mentally lifted to a higher plane, where the Lord is your light, your refuge, your peace that will carry you through the hard places.

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.” (Psalm 23:4-5)

"my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior—from violent people you save me." (2 Samuel 22:3 NIV)

"The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1)

Life does seem to have more bumps than there is road but "in the Lord" the bumps serve a purpose.  "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28) In her song, Macy Gray, said to "pick your diamonds, pick your pearls."  She was not saying that the beauty of the world outweighs the trouble, on the contrary, it is the trouble that creates the diamonds and the pearls.   In the natural, it is the pressure in the deep of the earth that produces a diamond.  A pearl is created when a grain of sand invades the shell of a clam.  Without the pressure, without the discomfort we would never have such beautiful treasures. 

That brings me to the final inspiration of the day; the amazing story behind an American treasure, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." The words were originally penned as a poem entitled "Christmas Bells" and it was written on December 25, 1864 by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (another American treasure).  The miracle of this song is in the transition that Longfellow went through to find the inspiration to write about hope.  Civil war struck our country on April 12, 1861. On July 10th of that same year, Longfellow's wife burned to death in front of her small children and husband when a spark from a candle engulfed her dress in flames.  That first Christmas after this tragedy Longfellow wrote, "How inexpressibly sad are all holidays." On Christmas of 1862 he said, "I can make no record of these days.  Better leave them wrapped in silence.  Perhaps someday God will give me peace." In 1863 his oldest son, a lieutenant in the Army of the Potomac was severely wounded.  That Christmas, Longfellow had nothing to say, life had stolen away his breath.  But Christmas of 1864 witnessed a change in his heart. The final marches of the war were in view and Abraham Lincoln was reelected.  Maybe those events sparked his flagging flame of hope but more than likely he had attained that higher plane in the Lord, a plane transcending the sorrows of life. 

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in god: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance." (Psalm 42:5)

This is a resounding theme in the Psalms.  Line after line is filled with the broken, depressed words of a hunted, haunted and bloody man.  Yet, though David speaks of tears for bread, long sleepless nights and the relentless stream of violent men…he always closes with the goodness of God.  “For I shall yet praise Him…”

"Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?  Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah. And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings." (Psalms 77:7-12) 

So with the approach of Christmas and the twilight of another year, remember the words to this old Christmas Carol and, “pick your diamonds, pick your pearls.”

"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas day

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along the unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till ringing, singing on its way

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime, a chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head

“There is no peace on earth,” I said,

“For hate is strong and mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail

With peace on earth, good will to men.”

Merry Christmas!

Amy Charissa Warren