The Gem

(“Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.” Romans 3:24)

I see the most beautiful gem I have ever imagined. It sits on the second shelf of a jeweler’s case at the weekend flea market. It has been a hot afternoon, and I have enjoyed rummaging among aging stringed instruments, rusting toys and aging Life magazines. If I had more time and lived closer, I would meander through the flea market every Saturday.

After a while you befriend some of the frequent vendors. When once you nodded and mumbled a “Hi, just looking”, now you take time and enter conversation. After a few more weeks there are six or seven you call friends. They always have coffee…always. It is an unwritten rule that just to the right of the lawn chair in which the vendor sits is a large red tartan thermos that somehow never runs dry.

He has no cups, not even Styrofoam. That is how he knows to dispense only to friends. I have learned, and now my morning begins with freshly brewed coffee from home in my travel mug. As it near the empty point I happen upon one of my vendor friends, we talk about his kids and mine, whether the rain that’s coming is going to affect his sales, and oh, “Is your mug empty?” By now we both know the routine, and he is as happy as I am to fill the mug.

It was one of those times that I noticed the gem. It was not huge, that is to say, I knew it was valuable by virtue of that very fact. It was not a large piece of quartz cut to enamor the eye. I am not good a assessing jewelry weights, but I would say it was at least two carats; maybe seven and a half millimeters wide. It was not the size that struck me, it was the perfection.

At first glance it did not stand out much. It lay on the shelf with ten or so other gems; all polished with beautiful cuts and displayed to catch the eye. Yes, at first glance it was just one among the many. But it kept my eye. Upon turning to glance at other jewelry around the corner, the exquisite gem would not escape my peripheral vision.

My feet were glued to the ground. I could not move. It wouldn’t have mattered if the threatening weather came upon us in that instant, I do not think I would have run for cover. At least, not until I got some answers about the gem that had caught me and would not let me go.

I asked my friend, “What is it?” He followed my nose to the unique jewel we have just been discussing. He smiled (it is true, he always smiled. He was the best of flea market vendors. If you bought half his stock, he smiled. If you walked by without a single word, he smiled. If you berated his inventory, saying it was nothing but costume jewelry, he smiled.) He smiled, but this smile had the same effect on my senses as did the exquisite gem.

“I found it in an abandoned field”, he said. “Oh,” so you have it free to you, at no cost? “No,” he replied. “I could not take what was not mine. I found the owner of the field, offered him a more than fair price for it, with the entire mineral rights as well, and he sold it to me instantly. I have never found anything like it in all my journeys.”

“But, once I found it, I couldn’t stop thinking about how free I was. I earned a meager living hawking my goods. But this gem has changed everything. Simply by its possession, I have lost all my worries, I have lost every enemy and gained as many friends. And, I no longer fear what will become of me once my vending days are over. Someone left that gem for me to find, and having found it, my life is changed. Forever. I am not the man I was before coming upon this beautiful jewel.”

It was perfect indeed. No matter where you stood, it reflected every bit of light in your direction. He took it inside one of the darker buildings with me, and asked me to look at it again. I was amazed as, though there was hardly any light in the shop, the gem all but glowed with light like the sun.

It was every color of the rainbow, each facet emanating each hue. And I could not know for sure, whether it was the gem or my emotion, but I could swear that by merely looking at it I was warmed within. It seemed to reach to my inner places; lighting the darkness, warming the cold, and, the longer I looked, the more I knew, there was healing in the gem simply found in the dirt on an anonymous field.

I had to have it! “I must have it, sir.” I was ready to negotiate, and offer the most I had to offer. The man looked me over, still smiling, and quite resolutely said, “____ dollars.” I stumbled. I mumbled. The amount he asked was exactly the amount of everything I owned, of every bit of cash I possessed. He was asking me for everything to own the jewel.

“And, one more thing,” he said. “The buyer must take my seat at the market. The jewel never leaves this spot. It is not a piece of decoration; it is never to be turned into a necklace or bracelet. Its beauty is tarnished if anything is added.”

No, I did not consider the offer for any length of time. I had to have it. I said, “Yes” immediately, and as I did, our eyes met and I knew I would never be the same. As customers walked through, I always offered them coffee, and always smiled when they stopped for more than a moment at the gem pulled from mere earth and given to men and women.