I took a precious diamond
and dipped it in the clay,
knowing yet not knowing
I’d regret the act someday;
for alas the world has told me,
“this is all the jewel is for;
sure the clay looks dirty,
but you have to try the door.”

Pleasure’s for a season,
grief lasts on and on,
guilt mixed with delusion,
the purity is gone;
a jewel so bright and precious,
a priceless gift from God,
as the clay lay drying
became an earthen clod.

The value of a clump of soil
can be squandered in a thought,
and so I tossed the jewel around
it’s beauty I forgot;
’til light shone in my darkness,
death’s lies began to fade;
the clay was chipped, a sparkle flew,
I saw the error I’d made.

I sought at once to cleanse the mess
my life had so become;
the Lord showed me the good, the bad,
the beauty from the scum.
At last the job neared completion
through a power not my own;
I wept at wasted year’s of dirt
as the diamond brightly shone.