$cripture

To speak of finding “gems” in scripture implies that the preceding and succeeding words surrounding those treasures are (indeed not dirt, but) less than gems. But here is a mystery that highlights the beauty of God’s word: all of it is a treasure—every single word—AND some of it is treasure. Both are the case—all and some—and this is possible because humans are not immutable, but rather, always changing and growing. This is why we often feel like we’re reading a particular portion of scripture “for the first time” even though it’s been hundreds of times. As scripture miners, our spiritual sight grows less and less dim (though our physical eyes may head in the opposite direction), enabling us to see more gems than on previous journeys through the word (and through life), until one day we stand face to face with Christ our great Treasure—the very Word of God—and see that the entire scripture mine is indeed one magnificent gem, and that the “common” stuff that surrounded the gems we’d discovered before death consisted completely and only of gems as well.

Considered from every angle, and every combination and permutation, each individual thought, verse, portion of scripture is a treasure, just as much as is the whole taken together.