My Precious

So, apparently a diamond is a girl's best friend.

But it isn't just girls who are obsessed with precious jewels or metals, men have quite the affinity for bling themselves.

But seriously now. 

In some arenas, precious stones and metals are a huge factor in displaying wealth and success. And why? I speculate it's because of the very high standards and subjection to scrutiny their industries have, which produces only the best of the best. What better way to advertise your success than to wear a product where low-quality is pretty obvious.

Each gemstone or precious metal is regulated based on gem-quality or purities/impurities. It takes a LOT to produce such treasures! I Wiki'd the processes for just a few of the preciousnesses.

• Diamonds for example are created from carbon under high pressure and high temperatures, and then subjected to much cutting for optimization of dispersment of white light, to acheive the highest gem quality.
• Gold is also subjected to high temperatures to bring as many impurities to the surface as possible so that they can be scraped off to achieve the purest gold.
• Pearls evolve through the process of animal response to irritants - garbage, sand, seaweed, parasites, etc. - and over years of dealing with these irritants, it transforms it into something beautiful enough to be considered a gemstone.

Purity is something our world understands on a level of material treasures, but don't apply that principle to the true treasures of this world. Like our own purity or purity in relationships.

Something else our world doesn't really understand these days is how mistakes, hurts, suffering can turn out to be the best thing for us. We revel in being victims, point blame at God, and/or claim self-survivorship. But truth is, if you are going to avoid the heat and pressure, the opposite conditions turn you into a lump of coal.  If you are going to avoid the fire and the scraping, you are going to stay a lump of fool's gold.

God treasures us as we are, but we are even more precious if we allow him to mold us to be at our ultimate value. It might be through high pressure situations, stress.  It might be through trial by fire. It might be exposing us to irritants. It might be by being scraped or cut. 

But we can let it optimize our dispersement of his light.