There is a special ring that's been passed down in our family – it's a beautiful antique cut diamond ring in a platinum setting. I possessed it for a while, but a few years ago, I went ahead and passed it on to my niece, Jayme Kay. It is a stunning ring – a full carat diamond, but if you look closely, way down deep inside the diamond, you'll see a black speck of carbon (black carbon) in the stone. Now I realize it was a flaw, but it reminded me of where that diamond had come from, where it had its beginnings – because every single diamond begins as a lump of coal. And then thousands of years later, as well as thousands of pounds of pressure, that lump of plain old dirty carbon turns into a precious, brilliant, stunning diamond. Sown in dishonor, it's a lump of coal... raised in honor, carbon becomes a precious stone – a diamond.
That little illustration so highlights 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 where it says, "So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, but it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power." What a lesson a little bit of carbon can teach us, for it serves as a model of how awesome, how wonderful, and how incredibly different – yet very much the same – our glorified body in heaven will be from our earthly body. Heaven is going to be so incredible, and we will be different and far better from what we are now, as a diamond is different and far, far better than a piece of common coal.
Now, I like to meditate on that as I sit here in this wheelchair of mine. My body wasn’t all that great when I was on my feet many years ago, but it’s even worse now, what with atrophied muscles and my misshapen hands and fingers. Now you’ve got to understand, for me, just to have a body like yours that works… well, for me, that would be fantastic. I’d feel like I were in heaven if I could but run and walk and lift and hold things in my hands. But the marvelous truth about 1 Corinthians 15 is that in heaven I won’t just get back my earthly body that works, no, it’ll be a glorified body that will suit me perfectly for both the new heavens and the new earth. I think it’s interesting that a diamond is, in essence, the same thing as a lump of coal – the only difference is how time and pressure create almost an entirely new substance (although, as I said, it is one in the same as that black lump of dirty stuff from which it came). In the same way, friend, my new heavenly body will be a new and improved version of this old one in which I now reside – the only difference is how time and pressure (a lot of pressure) will change this earthly garment into something so bright, so precious, so perfect, well… I just can’t wait. And like the Bible says, I’m happy to comfort and encourage you today with this powerful picture from 1 Corinthians 15 and my niece Jayme Kay’s diamond ring with the speck of carbon.
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