A poem about Jesus

[Pamela Smith]

My love for Jesus is so great,
He will take me to the gates,
Take me to the gates of Heaven,
Like Isaiah described,
"My chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands"
and I will relax in the sands of diamonds and precious stones.

[Roland]

Re: A poem about Jesus

[...]
and I will relax in the sands of diamonds and precious stones.

Hi Pamela,

I must admit I´m really bad at poetry, so please forgive me to ask:

How does one relax in the sands of diamonds and precious stones? These, and especially diamonds, are made of very hard materials. I have one of those whetting stones with diamond sand on it and it will take your skin right of when you slip and hit the stone while sharpening.

Relaxing in such an abrasive environment seems more masochistic than enjoyable. Could you elaborate on that some more?

Kind regards,

Roland

[Mary Etheldreda]

Re: A poem about Jesus

Oh Pamela that is just beautiful!
I love Jesus too! I love Him so much, but He's never given me the gift of poetry. I used to be sad about that because poetry can move so many people. He's never given me the gift of creating works of art or music or even being able to hold a note on key. But I've decided that's okay because He gave me the gift of noble fecundity and so I will Glorify Him Forever by allowing Him to Bless my Uterus every 10-11 months!

[Basilissa]

Re: A poem about Jesus

How does one relax in the sands of diamonds and precious stones? These, and especially diamonds, are made of very hard materials. I have one of those whetting stones with diamond sand on it and it will take your skin right of when you slip and hit the stone while sharpening.

Maybe she's going to get a gift of skin that's 10 in Mohs scale?

On the other hand, most regular sand on regular beaches is made up of the most common rock on earth - quartz - which is 7 in Mohs scale. That's abrasive material, too, and yet I don't see people complaining about abrasion too much - id does depend on the force with which you hit it, so stepping on abrasive material does not cause as much damage as hitting it with more force.

On the third hand, I have seen both diamond sand and corundum sand and I must admit that precious stones look rather... bland when ground.

Personally, I'd prefer to rest on larger pieces of gemstones, but then, of course, the diamonds would be grinding all of the softer stones... maybe set them in a matrix like these new countertop surfaces?...

Hmm.... This is more complicated than I have thought.

[Pamela Smith]

Re: A poem about Jesus

Thank you Mary ! Though I do believe, Jesus may have given you a secret talent you just haven't discovered yet.

[Basilissa]

Re: A poem about Jesus

Maybe she's going to get a gift of skin that's 10 in Mohs scale?

On the other hand, most regular sand on regular beaches is made up of the most common rock on earth - quartz - which is 7 in Mohs scale. That's abrasive material, too, and yet I don't see people complaining about abrasion too much - id does depend on the force with which you hit it, so stepping on abrasive material does not cause as much damage as hitting it with more force.

On the third hand, I have seen both diamond sand and corundum sand and I must admit that precious stones look rather... bland when ground.

Personally, I'd prefer to rest on larger pieces of gemstones, but then, of course, the diamonds would be grinding all of the softer stones... maybe set them in a matrix like these new countertop surfaces?...

Hmm.... This is more complicated than I have thought.

I kept thinking about it and the minerals that glitter the best when ground to sand particle size belong to mica group. So the best solution would be to grind something like a mica schist. Look for one with high ratio of muscovite for a bright gold-like effect, or lepidolite for lavender shine. Biotite, on the other hand, will give a mysterious black shine. Either way, a mica-rich sand would give an awesomely sparkling beach!

At any rate, mica is much softer and therefore more gentle for the skin, at around 2 in Mohs scale.

[Roland]

Re: A poem about Jesus

[...]
Hmm.... This is more complicated than I have thought.

Hello Basilissa,

Your post made me think. I think you are right when you say it is more complicated. Perhaps ¨sand¨ is to universal of a term.¨stone¨ or ¨mineral¨ too.

A few years ago some people asked me to make them a connection to the communal water supply, on the beach. Not an odd question until they told me it was for a project: building sand castles. I laughed at them telling them all you need to build a sand castle is already on the beach. Then they told me they did not only get the water from elsewhere but also the sand. I kid you not.

Then they gave me a basic lesson on sand, how it is formed and where it ends up. I forgot the details but they explained that sand forms in the mountains, ends up in the rivers and eventually the sea. It starts off very course with jagged edges but as it ends up in the sea, washing up on beaches over and over, after thousands of years it gets very round. That is why they would bring in sand, from the rivers, still with some rough edges as that would mean their sand castles would be able to stand up. I should have understood this as I have tried to dig into sand dunes.

Back to the diamond sand. I´ll take your word, as you are a True Christian™, that diamond is a lot harder than quartz. If it takes the relatively soft quartz thousands of years (let´s say six thousand) to become rounded of enough to be at best mildly annoying, how long would it take for the much harder diamonds? Especially since they comprise a vastly smaller amount of the available material and would mostly encounter softer materials on their path in life. Things to ponder.

And those minerals in a matrix to use as a countertop: Those are beyond my means. It is probably meant to be that way. Proverbs 10:22

Kind regards,

Roland

[Basilissa]

Re: A poem about Jesus

Hello Basilissa,

Your post made me think. I think you are right when you say it is more complicated. Perhaps ¨sand¨ is to universal of a term.¨stone¨ or ¨mineral¨ too.

I definitely agree with you on the stone thing. Things most people call stones actually fall into two major categories: minerals and rocks. Minerals are easy, each of them has a series of specific physical properties (hardness, composition, crystalline structure, etc), while rocks are made of different minerals in different proportions.

Back to the diamond sand. I´ll take your word, as you are a True Christian™, that diamond is a lot harder than quartz. If it takes the relatively soft quartz thousands of years (let´s say six thousand) to become rounded of enough to be at best mildly annoying, how long would it take for the much harder diamonds? Especially since they comprise a vastly smaller amount of the available material and would mostly encounter softer materials on their path in life.

There is no thing that would be difficult for Jesus (He created all these dinosaur fossils in a blink of an eye, didn't He?). Also, if we take a beach composed of 100% diamond sand, these grains would be grinding against each other, so they would definitely be rounding. But I take your point - some diamond particles in sand composed of mixed corundum (sapphire/ruby, 9 in Mohs scale) and beryl (aquamarine/emerald, 8 in Mohs scale) sand would not have enough diamond particles around to get nicely rounded.

While quartz is much softer than diamond, I would not discard it as soft - anything that has hardness of 7 or more can scratch glass and cannot be scratched by steel. So that's hard in my book, and that's why nice quartz crystals (such as amethyst) can be faceted (softer minerals can only be polished into cabochon shape, as facets would wear off rather quickly).

And those minerals in a matrix to use as a countertop: Those are beyond my means.

Well, they are still cheaper than granite countertops.

[MitzaLizalor]

Re: A poem about Jesus

rounding

Rubies are sometimes available as spheres, similar to the cabochon but round on both sides as Roland would know if he wasn't so busy trying deflect attention away from Jesus. It's very difficult to produce “sphaira” diamonds, either by cutting the corners off of a cube and transferring into a sphere machine which would be ridiculous so really you'd need to get them hand cut.

Pamela mentioned other precious stones and in combination with diamonds, topaz emerald and ruby would give a wonderful vibrance together with amethyst of which I'm particularly fond. And rubies. Red diamonds are also sought after but quite rare and you'd need to place an advance order to pre-empt cutting into another shape. A trough of these multi-hued (but not multi-faceted) trinkets would be quite comfortable and supportive of the back.

Boiled wool thrown over, what could be more snug?

[Basilissa]

Re: A poem about Jesus

Rubies are sometimes available as spheres, similar to the cabochon but round on both sides

Indeed, and they are cut this way to give the best possible "star" effect:

Pamela mentioned other precious stones and in combination with diamonds, topaz emerald and ruby would give a wonderful vibrance together with amethyst of which I'm particularly fond. And rubies.

That would be lovely indeed!

Red diamonds are also sought after but quite rare and you'd need to place an advance order to pre-empt cutting into another shape.

The other problem with fancy color diamonds, is that they are more rare than the demand for them - which means that plain/weakly colored diamonds are often treated to increase the vibrancy of the color (e.g. by heating or irradiating) - which treatments are not always permanent.

If you really want a good quality natural fancy color diamond, you need to look for an antique piece of jewelry which sports a colored diamond rather than shop in a jewelry store for a loose gem. On the other hand, diamonds in antique jewelry are often old mine cut instead of the brilliant cut... so you lose some sparkle effect, there.

[MitzaLizalor]

Re: A poem about Jesus

De Beers perhaps eschew deep reds but elsewhere may be found
A claret flow sublime to flense what whips alone could never cleanse
From every wretched carcass bound
To roadkill trees in reeking dens,
Jesus is His name.

A star shone brightly overhead a year or more ago
When Jesus tiny baby gazed with trusting eyes at Mary fazed
To think His perfect blood would flow
Pierced well by spear or thorn or crazed,
Leather kilted Roman.

Now way back when the good Lord said we all deserve to die
A sanguine wriggler would have pounced but whoops! via limblessness was trounced
Embold'ning us to watch the sky

Where joy (for us) will be announced,
And all the rest will suffer.

They'll scream and screech their skins peel off because they would not love
The gentlest man to ever live who only wanted to forgive
The filthy idols glimpsed above
By perfect eyes which died yet live!
Jesus is His name.