JEWELS

Frederick Buechner wrote, “You were in Eden, the Garden of God; every precious stone was your covering,” the Lord said to the King of Tyre, “carnelian, topaz and jasper, chrysolite, beryl and onyx; sapphire, carbuncle and emerald.” But then, as the Lord goes on to explain, because the king fell from innocence into sin, “I cast you out as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and the guardian cherub drove you out from the midst of the stones of fire.” (Ezekiel 28:13,16)

One way or another, we have fallen like the king. Yet we all carry within us a memory of Eden. It is perhaps why jewels fascinate us so and why we value them above almost all things. In their starry depths we see glimmers of where we have come from and also of where, according to ancient prophecy, we are going: the city whose “walls are …chrysoprase… jacinth… amethyst… and the twelve gates… twelve pearls… and the street…gold.” (Revelation 21:19-21)

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Jesus