IT'S THE WEEKEND of my 45th year on earth.
I was lucky fortunate enough blessed to spend part of it Saturday with my lovely bride on the rocky beaches surrounding Sachuest Point [photo]. It was a million dollar day. Brilliant sun, a fresh breeze, and a little soreness in the legs from the bike ride and mile hike around the park. On the back side of the point we dropped off the trail onto the beach, and took a side tour of the boulder strewn coastline.
I love this spot. Scattered in and among the sandstone boulders you can find formations of quartz in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some run like white ribbons through the darker rock, while pink and white boulders a foot or more in diameter are piled together in other places. I'm sure much of it remains deeply buried in the surrounding rock.
So there I was, hopping from one giant crystal to another, holding my best friend's hand, and muttering aloud about how Christians and quartz are a lot alike.
No, seriously. LOL! Bear with me for a sec...
Quartz is the most common mineral on the face of the Earth. It is found in nearly every geological environment and is at least a component of almost every rock type. It frequently is the primary mineral, >98%. It is also the most varied in terms of varieties, colors and forms. This variety comes about because of the abundance and widespread distribution of quartz. A collector could easily have hundreds of quartz specimens and not have two that are the same due to the many broad catagories. The specimens could be separated by answers to the following questions: color?, shade?, pyramidal?, prismatic?, druzy?, twinned?, sceptered?, phantomed?, included?, tapered?, coated?, microcrystalline?, stalactitic?, concretionary?, geoidal?, banded?, etc. Multiple combinations of these could produce hundreds of unique possibilities.
Beyond its varieties and colors, quartz has a fascinating - and useful - piezoelectric property:
If you squeeze a quartz crystal, it generates a tiny electric current. The opposite is also true: if you pass electricity through quartz, it vibrates at a precise frequency (it shakes about an exact number of times each second).
It's this ability to resonate when energy is applied to it that makes it useful for wristwatches, clocks, radios, computers, and cellphones. Quartz crystals are also found inside test and measurement equipment, such as counters, signal generators, and oscilloscopes.
Beyond its use in electronics, quartz can be used to make glass, electrical components, lenses and optics, abrasives, gemstones, and ornamental and building stones. Some folks even use the sounds that quartz bells and bowls make to encourage meditation, or hang it around their necks as theraputic crystals.
AREN'T WE LIKE THAT? We who make up the Body of Christ are everywhere on the earth. Some of us are tucked deep inside dark boulders, some run like ribbons through other lives, and some stand alone for the world to see. Some are sharp edged, and some have had these edges worn by the tides and wind. Some are cloudy, some bright. But all have the same simple composition of mind, body and spirit.
When we are re-formed by our Creator we become useful in a million different ways. He can use us to build strong foundations or pathways. We can help others see better, wear off rough edges, and become His ornamental stones to bring beauty and joy and value.
When He shapes us and passes His Spirit through us, we resonate with Him in sympathetic harmony. We become useful for communicating, or discernment, or bringing faithful stability, or helping others simply mark time whether that time is moving swiftly by or begrudgingly crawling along. It is not the largest or greatest among us that are the most used for this purpose, but often the smallest and the rarely-seen.
Polished by Him, our voices and our music can bring healing and joy and praise, and offerings of prayer.
I could go on but I'm sure you get the idea.
The next time you pick up a piece of quartz, see it as an example of how all Creation is designed to reflect and respond to God's glory.
Jesus said if men became silent in their testimony to His lordship "even the stones would cry out." Maybe He was thinking about you and me and quartz.
What a wonderful devotional! (I was wondering what happened before. There was no title and no post. Thanks for deleting my comment.)
Yes, I see the analogy as you do. "Polished by Him, our voices and our music can bring healing and joy and praise, and offerings of prayer."
The thing is, sometimes that polishing can be uncomfortable! But The Master knows what He's doing. That's a gratifying thought!
Thanks, April - hit "post" instead of "save draft." Chock it up to senility. :-)
Love your polishing thought. So many directions to go with the idea...