Imagine digging in the earth and discovering a 2,492-carat diamond! That’s what happened in the Karowe Mine in Botswana, Africa in August of 2024. With the average engagement stone weighing in at just over 1 carat, this monster was also of high quality and found intact according to the Lucara Diamond Corporation which operates the mine. Although the Canadian company did not estimate the value of this boulder, a diamond less than half that size was sold from the same mine for $53 million in 2017 according to a Fox News article by Stephen Sorace.
This giant jewel is the fifth diamond weighing over 1,000 carats produced by this particular source and another diamond of 2,036 carats was found in the same location last year. The larger one is believed to be the second largest ever discovered in a mine, trailing the 3,106-carat Cullinan Diamond found in South Africa in 1905. This giant is now part of the British Crown Jewels.
Earlier this summer, I shared a day of Creation Camp with Antioch Church middle schoolers focused on rocks and minerals. God has fashioned some amazingly beautiful creations and buried them all over the earth. We examined some specimens from my collection as well as those of a collector in our congregation and marveled at the colors, shapes, and compositions of these samples. We also considered how God designed these complex creations to benefit us by providing materials for virtually every part of modern existence through metals, building materials, roads, counters, and so much more.
After viewing photos of the 55-ton 39-foot gypsum crystals in Mexico’s deadly Cave of Crystals, and after discussing everything from coal to table salt, we read about rocks and minerals in the Bible. Then, in the afternoon, we toured the Mineral Museum at James Madison University. This incredible collection is a gem itself hiding in Harrisonburg and housing many Smithsonian quality specimens.
Spectacular meteorites as well as exquisite calcites, silicates, fluorites and other displays amazed us all. The stunningly colorful samples of Garnet, Beryl, Aquamarine, Topaz, and many others reflect the creative and orderly God who fashioned them. The museum even features a room of fluorescent rocks from New Jersey that glow under black light.
At one point in our visit, one student asked about the most valuable mineral in the museum and our host pointed to one of the stones and explained the reasons for its worth. And while that particular piece is considered the most expensive, it is still worth infinitely less than the soul of each person who was in the room that day. Far too seldom do we pause and consider the infinite worth of each human being whom God also created and formed.
And unlike the lifeless rocks and minerals, each person is filled with life and can walk, talk, think, and communicate. In fact, each of us is of such value to God that He gave His only Son to die so that we could be with Him forever in a place constructed and filled with even larger and more spectacular minerals than any on earth. The huge diamonds from Africa will seem tiny compared to the foundations of heaven built from precious stones.
But even these giant gemstones will not be the most valuable part of heaven. Instead of inanimate rocks, God’s gem display will feature saints from all the ages who endured persecution, torture, poverty and death for Jesus’ sake. He will introduce us to each one and their quality will far exceed that of any Smithsonian exhibit. But even these will pale in comparison to the most exquisite Gem of all: Jesus Himself! Oh, how beautiful to see Him face to face!
As we marvel at our granite countertops, engagement rings, and all the other amazing rocks and minerals God has made, may they remind us of our eternal home that houses the greatest Gem of all, Jesus Christ. Blessings, George