Every month has a birthstone. The birthstone for the month of May is the emerald. And it reminds me of Jesus.

The gorgeous green emerald symbolizes rebirth, reminding us of Jesus’ resurrection as well as our rebirth into God’s family when we come to Christ.

Several healing properties have been mythically associated with the emerald. The one that makes me smile is that gazing upon an emerald soothes the eyes. Well, of course it does. It’s just that beautiful. As is our Lord when we gaze upon Him.

Ancient Greeks and Romans, associated emeralds with Aphrodite/Venus—their goddess of love. Our Heavenly Father—the one true God of love—proved His love by the physical act of becoming human and dying for our sake. In Christian symbolism then, the emerald stands for rebirth in Christ, faith and hope and love.

So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Sort of makes you want to go find an emerald and gaze upon its beauty, doesn’t it?

Happy birthday to everyone born in the month of May.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for the extravagant beauty you have spread throughout this world. Thank you for even hiding bits of your glory underneath the surface of the world for us to find and enjoy. Thank you that everything in the universe provides us with an opportunity to thank you and exclaim your glory. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? This is the final post in the Carol’s Gems series. Have you followed the monthly birthstone blogs? Which birthstone most reminds you of Jesus?

The post Carol’s Gems: May – The Emerald first appeared on I'm Just Thinkin'.

The post Carol’s Gems: May – The Emerald appeared first on I'm Just Thinkin'.

Each month has a birthstone. The birthstones for the month of December are the blue topaz…

Blue Topaz

and tanzanite.

Tanzanite

And they both remind me of Jesus.

Blue topaz and tanzanite are popular gemstones used often in women’s jewelry. But did you know that nearly all of the two gems found in their natural state begin as dull, brownish stones? In fact, the exquisite tanzanite—found at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in 1967 and nowhere else on earth—was not recognized as a gemstone until a wildfire heated some of the brown stones on the ground and turned them the rich purplish blue color we know today. It is heat that did it. And heat is also routinely applied to natural brownish topaz to turn that gemstone blue.

Our souls, too—in their natural state—are dull and brownish; filled with unrepentant sin. We need Jesus to clean us up and make us sparkle.

Scripture tells us that Jesus will make us white as snow. But when you think of laundry back in Grandma’s day, you remember that she added bluing to the white load because blue-white was even whiter than white.

So, too can Jesus clean up our souls so that they are whiter than white.

Sometimes though, he has to do so by allowing us to go through fire.

This third I will put into the fire;
I will refine them like silver
and test them like gold.
They will call on my name
and I will answer them;
I will say, ‘They are my people,’
and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”
(Zechariah 13:9)

And check this out—scripture that combines both a refiner’s fire AND a laundry reference!

But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. (Malachi 3:1-3)

God can transform our drab, brown souls into something that glorifies Him. He can turn them into something that reflects His glory.

I said last month that more than any other birthstones, yellow topaz and citrine best represented their birth month, November—a time for autumn and harvest. But December’s blue topaz and blue/violet tanzanite also nicely reflect their birth month, December. The color we humans most generally associate with baby boys? Blue. Appropriate because during this month of December, we celebrate the human birth of the most precious baby boy in the history of humanity—Jesus Emanuel. God with us.

Happy birthday to everyone born in the month of December.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for the sparkling glimpses of your glory found in nature. Please clean us up and make us shine—even if you have to put us through fire. We thank you that you are with us always. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Is there a time you felt you went through fire but came through knowing God had been with you?

The post Carol’s Gems: Blue Topaz And Tanzanite first appeared on I'm Just Thinkin'.

The post Carol’s Gems: Blue Topaz And Tanzanite appeared first on I'm Just Thinkin'.

“Carol’s Gems” is a glitter-loving gal’s way to find a place on a geologists’ blog site. This begins a year-long series that focuses on the birth stone for each month of the calendar and how they remind us of Jesus.

When God created Earth, He filled it with beauty. Mountains, plains, oceans, lakes, rivers, creeks, ponds and puddles. The cloud-filled sky. The grass, trees, flowers, critters, all reflect God’s beauty.

But when God finished covering the Earth’s surface with beauty, He still had lots of beauty left. So He hid some deep inside the earth.

Mankind digs into God’s rich soil. Underneath the beauty at the surface of our earth, past the wiggly worms, gnarly roots and crumbly dirt, nestle sparkling, glittering treasures. We dig them up, dust them off and hold them to the light, exclaiming, “Beautiful!”

And we call them “precious.”

We name those treasures diamond, sapphire, emerald, ruby. They are a reflection of God’s glorious, excessive beauty.

Matthew 13:44 recounts Jesus’ parable of the man who found a treasure in the ground. The man covered it back up and sold everything he owned. He then bought the land so the treasure could be his.

The treasure in Jesus’ parable was the Gospel, the priceless good news of our salvation through Christ.

When I think of gemstones, I am reminded that God has placed His beauty all around me. It is in nature, in people, in God’s Word. Sometimes, His beauty requires us to dig. But when we find it, it is a sparkling, glittering, precious delight. And it is worth the seeking.

Hidden treasures also remind us that God has placed a sparkling, precious delight inside each of us. With God’s help we can dig through the dirt, past the worms and the roots and find it—our desire to know and love Him. And to become the people He means us to be.

God can dust this treasure off and hold it up to the light. Our obedience is a delight to Him. Our faith is a sparkling, faceted radiance, shining God’s glory to the world.

It is worth the digging.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for your glory and for the reminders of your beauty around us. Please work in us so that we are a delight to you. Help us seek your treasure above all else. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? What treasures in your life do you see as God’s sparkling delights?

The series, “Carol’s Gems” begins next month with the June birthstone: the pearl and how it reminds us of Jesus.

The post Carol’s Gems: Treasure Hunting first appeared on I'm Just Thinkin'.

The post Carol’s Gems: Treasure Hunting appeared first on I'm Just Thinkin'.