The store was bright and shiny. Everything gleamed. Snagging my attention at every turn, gems in all colors winked out at me, enticing me to look more closely.
The star of the display was the “Crown of Light” diamond. It’s not the actual diamond, but rather the patented cuts or facets of the diamond. This technique gives the diamond extra sparkle and shine. Regular diamonds only have 58 facets (round brilliant cut diamonds) but these diamonds have 90 facets. Diamonds with this precision cut reflect more light.
‘Turn it and turn it,’ the ancient rabbis said of Scripture, comparing it to a precious gem, ‘for everything is in it.'”
Rachel Held Evans, in inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on water, and loving the bible again
These gems were beautiful. If you look at them under a jewelers loupe you can turn them and turn them again to magnify the cuts and imperfections of the diamond or any gem. I think this is what Rachel is saying in her book.
The inspired pages of the bible stand out as opportunities to turn and turn the pages of the text. To recut it and watch the oppressed, the poor, the women. Find the “good news” it brings to these people. Read the war stories, the resistance stories, the live-action of Scripture and be prepared to be undone by it.
As I read through this book, I’ve been challenged to discover the different points of view from warlords like Joshua and David, to slave women like Hagar, to eunuchs being baptized in the desert, and a myriad of other stories that tell of resistance, hope, human trafficking and more.
The Scripture is truly a gem and the more I turn it, recut the facets, the more I too become like Jacob. Knowing God is bound to make me limp, and I’m okay with that. ❤
TotallyKris 