I recently took my daughter, Anya, with me to visit a Christian AIDS hospice for people who are homeless and living with HIV. We were joined by fellow Kenyan friends on our church HIV ministry team called “Sihambasonke,” which means “coming alongside.”

We gathered the patients who were sitting in wheelchairs in the sun or lying in bed in the main hall to make key chains. Anya explained what to do and they began working with the “bling-like” colorful beads we had brought.

Once they were done, I asked everyone to show their key chains, each one glittering with a big jewel-like bead at the end, and explained what the big jewels represented in their lives. Some mentioned their families, and one said God had rescued her from death. Another woman said, “Jesus – he’s the most important thing in my life,” and others nodded in agreement.

“Yes, Jesus is our most precious jewel and should be the foundation of our lives. But you are his jewels as well. He knitted each of you together carefully in your mother’s womb,” I told them as they listened intently. “He made you for a special purpose.” My friend added that each of them had special gifts and talents that God had given them for the Church. These forgotten and stigmatised people in our society smiled fleetingly, contemplating being a “jewel of the King.”

In Psalm 45, verses 10, 11, and 13 say: “Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father’s house. The king is enthralled with your beauty; honour him, for he is your lord… All glorious is the princess within her chamber: her gown is interwoven with gold.”

What happens to the downtrodden when they believe and accept that they are a jewel of the King, a royal prince or princess in service to the King of Kings? What about you and I – do we really believe we are precious jewels to our Lord?

And at World Vision, with our all our ideas, resources and power, do we walk into communities as treasure hunters, expecting to discover precious jewels in the children, their families and their communities?

If we accept ourselves as “princes and princesses of the King” and if we enter into communities expecting to find the “jewels” he has already created, how might this change the way we go about development? The careful chiseling and creation of those jewels is underway. Can we find it and build on these precious gifts?

Prayer:
Dear Lord, we thank You that You’re a God who is unbiased and unprejudiced. Lord help us see ourselves the way You see us, help us find the diamonds in the rough and change the way we perceive others and ourselves, and remind us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by You.