God sees me as a precious jewel, cleansed by Him!
by Em Liddiard, Botswana Youth for Christ
The theme for Youth Week was Rebuild, and I taught an elective called Rebuilding after Trials. It was a great confirmation for my message that one of the camp directors, Davina, told me she had brought along a bunch of gemstones and a
glass vase for a demonstration where she would get the gemstones all dirty and give each young person one. Then they would each drop their dirty gemstone in the vase full of water, and it would become clean and shiny again.
I marveled because I’d planned to share what God had taught me in 2013 after I had gotten attacked while running— that He sees us as precious jewels, and no matter how dirty we feel because of the sin done against us or our own sin, our inherent value does not change and Jesus can wash us clean and polish us to shine again! So once Davina heard what I’d planned to share, she gave me the gemstones and the vase to use in my elective.
One girl came up to me after the first day and told me that my talk was life-changing for her. She explained how in the morning devotional that day, when we were asked to write down how we view ourselves, followed by how God views us, she had written down that she viewed herself as dirty. She showed me how she had left the other side (how God views her) blank, because in the morning she had not known. But then, after hearing my talk and seeing her dirty jewel get washed clean, she exclaimed that she knew that God sees her as a precious jewel, cleansed by Him!