On Dec. 9 Denis Tyrrell was strolling past a hole he had already filled in while searching for gems at the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, the world’s only diamond park where visitors can keep whatever they find. But a sparkle caught his eye, so he stopped for another look. Good thing he did.?
Bob WeathersIt turned out that the source of the glitter was a cube-shaped diamond, almost 3.5-carats, the largest that Tyrrell had found since he began digging at the Park in March.?
But looking for diamonds is second nature to Tyrrell, who works as a handyman so he can have free time to dig for the precious gems. “When I’m here and I’m walking, I’m always looking. When I’m on the ground, I’m always digging,” he said. His love for the gems spilled out as he talked about his find. “A beautiful gem like that-. very clear. When a diamond shows up, it’s beautiful. It’s an amazing thing to know, this little spot produces diamonds. I love it a lot.”
“This little spot produces diamonds.”?
Perhaps we should make signs that say that. Signs that we would hang over the doorways of churches. Signs that would remind every broken person, every shameful sinner, every battered soul that things will be different now.? “This little spot produces diamonds.” Sure, on the outside it looks like any other building. But inside, something extraordinary is happening.
God is always walking, always looking, always digging (Luke 19:10). God is seeking those individuals, those broken, dirty people, who need someone to pick them up and clean them up and find in them the diamond they were meant to be.
And he loves it when a potential diamond shows up. When a person, broken and hurt, finds her way to Him. A gem just waiting to take shape. So He has made a place for us to come and huddle together and admit that we all need his help, we need to be more than we are. We are not diamonds yet. We are in production.
“This little spot produces diamonds.” Be in church in 2008. Make your little spot a place that God can work to change people’s lives. Yours included. Maybe this year, He’s looking for you.