The Diamond Thief

Once there was a master jeweler. He spent years crafting the perfect piece until he had made the largest and most beautiful diamond. It was his masterpiece, and he delicately shaped it to display the fullness of the beauty he'd given it. But soon his apprentice became jealous of the diamond's beauty - the apprentice knew he would never be as good as the master. So one night he crept in the workshop and stole the diamond! In bitterness and rage he carried it away to destroy it. He wanted to ruin the beauty he could never make.

As the thief tried to unmake the beauty of the diamond, he found that he could not. So he battered it. He covered it in garbage. He smeared it with filth until it looked nothing like a jewel. While this was happening, the master came looking for his masterpiece. He found it and took it back for he was stronger than the evil apprentice. The master cleaned it off and restored it. The diamond shone as brightly and beautifully as ever. And do you know what he named this beautiful and rare diamond?

He named it you, because this is a story about you. It is about how God crafted you and made you His most prized possession (a, b, c). There is an evil one who tries to steal us away from God. He tries to cover us in the filth. He burdens us down with our mistakes and guilt, drowns us in the pain and struggles of this world, and he tries to convince us that we are ugly and worthless. And so we forget who made us and for what purpose. We struggle to remember that God can rescue us, clean us, and make us beautiful. But God is always faithful. He longs to bring home the lost forgotten ones that the world mocks as mediocre and unloved. We are beautiful because He made us in His image, and He places His Spirit inside us.

"He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people" (Titus 2.14)