Uncut Gemstones

This story is from several years ago, when my now seven year old son was only three years old. Every time I see it on my Facebook memories feed, it is a sweet reminder of Who the LORD is: He is Heaven's Jewelsmith, crafting uncut and raw gemstones, and turning them into priceless, precious, fashioned jewels.

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We have a craft drawer that has various jars of crafting pieces like pom-poms, googly eyes, beads, buttons, etc....nothing out of the ordinary. I was sitting at my desk and my three year old son came into the office to play. He went to the craft drawer, took out the small jar of plastic gemstones and brought it over to me. He said "Look! These are all homeless people." He proceeded to lay on the floor, dumped them out, and created a "scenario" that was essentially God loving the homeless people and giving them food, water, and a home. It was a profound moment for me. 

Living in a decent-sized city and large metro area, we have literally thousands of homeless people and panhandlers. Police are always tearing down tent cities, arresting panhandlers, and calling ambulances to take away some poor soul who lost their life on the street. How often do we look at these people, the relatively lowest in our society, and have thoughts opposite to love? Have we ever taken a moment to see these people as....people? Have we seen someone on the sidewalk or in a parking lot, obviously high/drunk/mentally ill/etc... and seen them through the eyes of Jesus? Any one of us could be that person at any point in our life. 

Yes, that person has been blackened by the darkness of sin, just as we all have. But, when Jesus looks at that person, He sees what could be. He sees a beautiful diamond, a precious sapphire, and a sparkling ruby....all waiting to be loved and transformed by the Grand Jewelsmith, Him. How can we love these people like Jesus? How can we show them Christ in us? 

We love these people by serving them, whether we think they deserve it or not. We love these people by telling them the Good News about Jesus' love for them. We love these people by showing them that they are not filthy excuses for a human being, but by demonstrating to them that they are precious jewels in God's eyes, if only they turn to Him and surrender their life to Him. 

We were all created in His Image. Yes, drug addiction and mental illness is a severe problem. Yes, our health care system is a joke and nearly inaccessible to the homeless (due to various reasons). Yes, the cost of living is absurd and good paying permanent jobs are hard to find. But, do you know what the biggest problem is? Sin. Living contrary to God's commands and not caring about it, or not even realizing that the lives they have lived have been contrary to God's Word. 

Ask any homeless person or panhandler if they know Jesus and they'll respond typically (at least here) with, "Yeah! I know Jesus, I love Jesus!" And then they'll tell you that they went to Sunday school as a kid or their grandmomma went to church, saying "sorry" after every f-bomb and G-d curse that they just inserted after every other word. It's obvious to any Believer that a lot of these people truly are lost, oblivious to the path they are on. It doesn't matter what choices were made (whether by them or others) to bring them to this point in their life. What matters is that they are not living their lives with the hope that only Christ can give.   

How will these people ever begin to care, ever begin to accept the hope of Christ, unless we bring them Jesus to light up their darkness? Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one can come before the Father, except through Jesus. These people may be the lowest of our city's society - known the most by law enforcement and retail managers, but they are uncut raw gemstones. People who may be living in perpetual darkness now, but if they hear the precious Word of God, the Name of Jesus, and accept it.....the Jewelsmith will transform them into a precious gemstone that He adorns Himself with. 

How much so are we all!? Don't be a precious jewel that gets thrown out in the fire to be destroyed. Be a precious jewel that though you start out raw, uncut, and ugly....with the redeeming grace of Jesus, you become the most precious, beautiful, and priceless gemstone. 

Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

 - Colossians 1:28

And I'd like to add to this story, a helpful way to interact with the homeless in your own area. What we have been doing is putting together what we call "homeless bags". I've heard other people called them "Savior Sacks". I take a double plastic grocery bag (some people make fabric bags) and I put a shelf-stable canned meal (only give them cans with pop tops for easy opening), canned fruit, a bottle of water, sometimes a chocolate, pack of gum, or candy, a travel sized bottle of hand sanitizer, a mask (since COVID restrictions have been put in place), and necessary utensils/napkins. I then put a Bible (full edition, but economy print) along with a personal letter I printed, a gospel tract, and sometimes another tract (right now I'm doing the CONTRADICT tract that opposes the COEXIST thing). 

I don't do anything fancy or complicated. All I do is when I see a homeless person that the Lord prompts me to go to or a panhandler approaches me, I ask them if they are hungry. I never give out money, preferring to serve them in a way that is less likely to be abused. Most of the time they say yes. So, I hand them the bag and I bless them. Sometimes, the Lord leads me to pray for them - so I'll get a name and listen to them tell me about what's going on. 

Now don't get me wrong, I am no one great and my evangelism could use a ton of work. But, I try. I try to see these people as Jesus sees them. And my heart yearns to see them live for Christ rather than for drugs, money, whatever... As we see the hour approaching when no man can work, I can't help but feel even more compassion for these people. The harvest is ripe and the workers are few. 

So instead of seeing the homeless or panhandlers as a waste of time, or as someone just trying to get money for drugs....See them as a diamond in the rough - you are the miner, Jesus is the jewelsmith. It's not up to you to ensure there's a finished product, but how will that diamond be cut and fashioned if it's never noticed in the mine and is ignored? Something to think about.....Look at yourself even. 

Are you a precious gemstone that is being fashioned by Christ? Do you still have some impurities that need to be cut away? Or are you still an uncut raw gemstone, wishing you could be something more, but never surrendering your heart and your life completely to the Lord? 

I know I still have impurities and if we're honest, we all do and will continue to have those little flaws. That is until Christ transforms us into the likeness of Himself, with resurrected bodies of righteousness. Wow, what a day that will be when we are all completed, perfect, a precious piece of jewelry in the arms of Christ!

It is my prayer today that everyone goes to the Lord in prayer, surrendering your life to Him to transform. Ask the Lord to help you to have compassion on your neighbor and to see them as He does. The harvest is many, but the workers are few....

36 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

- Matthew 9:36-38