Jewels

God is so amazing. I love it when he ties his word and actions together in the most obvious and wonderful ways. Let me explain….

The following passage is really close to my heart. I have felt the Lord repeatedly lead me to it, and it is a great encouragement to me. There are some things in my life that I am waiting for breakthrough in, and I have felt Him say through these words, not to worry, because He will take care of it all.

“I’ll go ahead of you, clearing and paving the road.
I’ll break down bronze city gates, smash padlocks, kick down barred entrances.
I’ll lead you to buried treasures, secret caches of valuables-
Confirmations that it is, in fact, I, GOD, the God of Israel, who call you by name.” Beginning of Isaiah 45

I always wondered what exactly ‘buried treasures and secret caches of valuables’ would look like. This week I found out…

I have been in my new job for about 3 weeks now, and have been relishing the opportunity to learn all about something that I am really interested in. I think this has been pretty obvious to my managers, as I have constantly been asking them questions, and showing quite a lot of enthusiasm to learn as much as I possibly can.
On Friday of last week I mentioned at work that a stone had fallen out of my favourite ring. This ring only cost me £1.50, but I love it because it sparkles so much. Then my manager disappeared off the shop floor and brings out a little plastic box, from the back of shop.
He hands me a little blue gem, and suggests that I replace it with this, ‘What is this?’ I ask, and he replies that it is a sapphire! I am somewhat puzzled at this point (and I still am a bit), as to why I can have it for free. ‘Surely it is worth something?!’ He explains that as it is so small, they don not bother selling it on commercially.
It doesn’t stop there! In this little box there were also a little bag of diamonds, and some cultured pearls. My eyes are popping out at this point, and I gleefully sit down to inspect them. I seriously felt like a kid again! There are 12 little diamonds, each the size of a pin head, and about 35 pearls of various sizes. The wonderful thing about diamonds and pearls are that they are parts of God’s creation.
My manager casually says to me that I can have them if I like.
‘What?!’ I exclaim, ‘Have them…for free?!!’
I must have asked 5 times, why I could have them for free, and why the business was not trying to sell them on. (They had come from some jewellery that were sold by a customer to the store, the company had sold the gold on for what it was worth, but not the gems.) I couldn’t quite understand the explanation he gave me, but in the end I realised that I was being blessed, and I should stop trying to protest!

I thought that this was the conclusion until Saturday….
On Saturday at work, I was given an opal! How cool!
I love opals…I don’t know if you’ve ever seen one, but they are iridescent and have a rainbow like effect within the stone. The most beautiful ones are black opals….except they’re not black…they’re turquoise.

Wow. I am amazed at the Lord. And what I think is coolest of all is that the Lord knows each of us individually – he knows what we love, and what will speak to our hearts. He knows me, and He knows YOU!!