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Thank you so much for bringing the gemstone metaphor to the discussion and thank you for all your insights, dear brother in Christ!

When we get to where ever the end is could be that we will experience this precious stone allusion first hand.. from all(the people) we know and others.. What a image of the radiance of the light source this is.. People in "heaven" shineing in multiple ways.. ways we cannot even understand NOW... (I Cor 2;9)

Indeed. I find it particularly illuminating that each layer of the foundation of the New Jerusalem is named for an Apostle and consists of a unique gemstone. Unique colors, altogether beautiful.

And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. – Revelation 21:14

And the foundations of the wall of the city [were] garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation [was] jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. – Revelation 21:19-20

God is like a master artist, His creation - heaven and earth - a living masterpiece of radiant colors.

To God be the glory!

[ God is like a master artist, His creation - heaven and earth - a living masterpiece of radiant colors. ]

I live, dear lady, amongst several rivers.. Alaskan rivers.. all of which have a bottom composed of rounded rocks of every sort.. A walk along the river is a walk over millions maybe trillions or some other massive number of small rounded stones..

Have you ever been around a rock tumbler?.. A rock tumbler will tumble the rocks in a very hard medium and polish them.. it takes days but it will polish the hardest stone.. Polished to be shiny and glassy showing all mannar of "character".. both clear and opaque.. of every color and tint of color..

Thats what comes to my mind on this conversation.. Those rocks "tumbled" are quite beautiful.. ALL OF THEM.. Rocks of every color and stripe of color shape, weight and clarity.. They look very dull in the river but tumbled.. "polished".. they are "precious".. in essense if not in value.. I have often wondered what a river of tumbled rocks would show..

This human life surely must be a "tumbler".. tumbling us all..

I found in my ALaskan adventures a veritable mountain of Jade.. Alaskan jade.. which has streaks of white running through it.. some dark green some light green some almost clear but still green.. and the streams and streamlettes running down it has jade rocks has their base.. I have been looking for a rock tumbler to buy so I can go to my nearest river bed and gather prospective "rocks" to tumble.. Why?.. just to see how they turn out.. For several years I've wondered what some of them(rocks) would look like(tumbled).. as I walked along the river bed.. and looked at the nearest mountains.. You know just to get out of the house..

I think I will go out and do it(buy a tumbler).. AFter all what is a precious stone?.. Except a stone precious to you.. The act of selecting rocks to tumble seems pregnant with meaning to me.. An adventure in the selection of them and "the unveiling" in the observation of them tumbled, after several/many days.. Some of these threads are like a tumbler.. polishing various stones.. WHich of them is most precious?.. LOL.. Whos to say.. Even granite polished is most beautiful.. as many American kitchens display.. beneath the kitchen cabinets..