Wake Up, Look Up

Hello, everyone. Thanks for listening to Wake Up, Look Up, a podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Zach Weihrauch. And in today's episode, we're talking about cheap diamonds, and we're asking the question, are you done chasing status? Now this is prompted by an article I read in the Wall Street Journal recently about how the value of diamonds once thought to be eternal.

Diamonds are forever, as the saying goes, are plummeting in value. In fact, De Beers, which was one of the leading, manufacturer and and sales companies of engagement rings and other diamond jewelry, was recently dropped in value by over $4,000,000,000. That's because lab grown diamonds, as opposed to those pulled out of mines, lab grown diamonds are on the rise. They're 20% of the global diamond market. And lab grown diamonds are cheaper and, not as long lasting as actually mined diamonds.

In fact, 50% of the engagement rings in The United States are lab grown diamonds. Now that's also leaving out even fake jewelry and things like that. The price of diamonds, as a result, is plummeting because the market's being flooded with these lab grown diamonds. So that 86% drop in lab grown diamonds and a 40% drop in natural diamonds in terms of price point. In fact, a one carat, pretty big size, one carat engagement ring with a lab grown diamond can now be purchased for $765.

And I just wanna say to that, where was that twenty years ago? Because that's not what it was costing. Diamonds are no longer forever. Diamonds are really no longer status symbols, and even the companies that make and sell them are no longer as valuable as they once were. Now why is this important on a podcast connecting the news to the gospel?

Well, simply this. This is a perfect illustration of what Jesus said in Matthew six when he tells us to not lay up for ourselves treasures here on Earth where moth, rust, thieves, and I might just say, plummeting market values can diminish them. Worldly possessions do not provide lasting security. They do not provide lasting or even actual status. And as we're seeing, they can't even hold their static value in this market.

This is a wake up call to us that the things that we think make us somebody, the things that we think will provide us happiness or prove that we've accomplished something actually aren't even doing that anymore. It's what the writer of Proverbs tells us that security and possessions is not really security. He says it this way, that our riches will sprout wings and fly away like eagles. What we once thought we had, we won't. What what we once thought said something powerful about us no longer does.

The truth is that every culture holds out a certain kind of lie as to things that can provide us status. It's not new. Prophet Jeremiah was warning about it in his day saying, let not the rich boast in their riches. That's Jeremiah nine twenty three. Do you know why?

Because Jeremiah saw judgment coming. He saw exile on its way. He knew the diamonds, quote, unquote, of his day weren't gonna actually get people out of any of the problems that were headed their way. They didn't then, and they won't now. And, of course, true value was never meant to be found in possessions, not even possessions covered in diamonds.

True value is found in the finished work of Jesus Christ. This is why Peter, writing to a group of Christians a long time ago, said this, you were redeemed with the blood precious blood of Christ. That's first Peter one eighteen and nineteen. He's saying, your value isn't in what you own, it's in what was done for you. Your value is this, that God loved you so much, he gave the blood of his own son in order to purchase you back from sin, in order to include you in the kingdom that he is building.

Now this is not a podcast telling you you can't have jewelry or you shouldn't buy your soon to be fiance a wonderful engagement ring. You should buy the best engagement ring that you can afford. That's not the point. The point is this, the things we attach ourselves to, the things we think will give us status, in the end, eventually plummet in their value, either because the market goes down or because you're dead and it belongs to someone else anyways. You can own things as the saying goes, but don't be owned by them.

Don't be defined by them. Instead, put your identity in Christ. Find your status in what he's done because unlike diamonds, the value of what Jesus Christ has done for you will never go down. Hey. Thanks for watching this episode of Wake Up, Look Up.

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