Joy is a diamond in the center of my being,
a gracious gift that does not erode
even when it is washed by acidic hate
or flooded with the false sweetness of manipulation.

Joy is in the presence the Holy Spirit, living in me,
Who does not cringe from the heat of the fiery furnace
or the bleak icicles of utter human hopelessness.
His gift of joy is a flame
that cannot be extinguished by any earthly evil,
no matter what ghastly shape it takes.

Whether I sob in sorrow or cry out in despair,
my tears trickle down, finding their way
to the bedrock at my core;
to the diamond in the rough,
so that more facets of its beauty are revealed
as the waves of trouble wash up against its constancy.

The diamond of joy within me
is God’s love and grace, the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
the firm foundation that never shifts
no matter how the earth quakes
or the bombs fall.

When my structure falls to rubble,
when my earthly home leaks and crumbles,
it signals the beginning of new life
basking in The Light that shines from The Diamond
no longer encased in the roughness of this earth.

I, we, all of us who love Jesus, have the gift of
this Holy Spirit diamond within us,
to have and to hold, for better and for worse,
in good times and bad, from this day forward,
Until death, which does not separate us,
but draws us into heaven with Him.

I have eternity to sing His praises
and discover never-ending facets of love and joy.

~ Kathleen Evenhouse, May 2024