God on Hands and Knees

For Christmas my husband promised me an amethyst ring. I wanted to inspect the stone before it was set. As the jeweler grasped it with a pair of tweezers, it popped out. Neither of us saw where it landed. Soon three store employees and I were searching on our hands and knees. One man flipped on a flashlight, but he said, "Too bad it's not a diamond. It would catch the light, and we'd see it right away."

There are people like that. Beautiful people who catch the light. The girls who get the boys' attention in school. The women who turn men's heads. Maybe you're one of those women. Maybe you're not.

In Luke 15, Jesus tells the story of a woman searching for a valuable silver coin. She lights a lamp and sweeps her home, eager to find it. It's a picture of God, down on hands and knees. God is looking for you and me, searching for people who are lost in a culture that denies our value because we don't measure up. Then God finds you -- there you are!-- and dances with joy. And, if I may take some liberties, in God's fingers we see not a coin, not a diamond, but an amethyst. The world says it's merely a semi-precious stone. But in God's eyes the tiny purple gem is beautiful and worth just as much as the rarest diamond.

An hour after I returned from the jewelry store, the phone rang. The jeweler had found the amethyst on the floor, hiding under an electrical cord. Soon my new amethyst will be set into a ring. Next time you see the color purple, think of yourself as that amethyst God was searching for. You wear purple -- the color of royalty. Of course you do. You're a daughter of the King.