Diamonds are beautiful and valuable. They have many facets from the top, most seen, to the bottom, hidden in the setting. People are many faceted because they are complex creatures who are also beautiful and valuable. I can often tell which facet of my life people are seeing by how they react to me.

Number one, and hopefully most visible: Goodish. Goodish are things that are right most of the time. They are on the consistent side of being right, doing right, thinking right. This is when I’m on my best behavior and am the least harmful to others. These are areas in which Jesus has established His values over time, and He can be identified in my life.

Number two: Improving. These are things that are in the process of change toward number one. They have been identified as needing correction and work. These issues are in active process. They have not been completely mastered and are inconsistent.

Number three: Wrong –. These are things that are in line for change. They are occasionally accepted as needing change. They are not yet, with any regularity, working towards change. They are targeted but inconsistently chosen for the upgrade list.

Number four bad. These are characteristics that definitely need to change but are resistant or clueless to that. They are trouble known and unknown but habits ingrained to a point where change is not immediately on the horizon.

Number five: clueless: these are the great mass of unseen characteristics that have not risen close enough to the surface to be identified as good, bad, or indifferent. They may be causing all kinds of trouble, and I assume they are. However, they have not yet been identified or put on any list.

Even the “five” facets reflect through the other facets because they are a part of the whole. It is impossible to separate the best from the worst in a person. Each facet is a contributing part. Permanence is a value in the diamond. Change is the value in a human. We are processing from the pressure of life changing from coal to diamonds to diamonds prepared for settings and display.

We can’t choose all the pressures that work to change us, but we can choose one. Jesus can cause all other pressures to develop good outcomes. We can choose Jesus and have even the worst in our lives become useful. Jesus has turned so many who have been lost in drugs, alcohol and so many other horrors into people who rescue others from disaster. All facets of a person can be a number one in Jesus’s hands.