Better than Diamonds

Big Sur from our drive down Highway 1/the Pacific Coast Highway last year

My husband isn't an overly sentimental man.  But he does have little ways of surprising me when he shows that there's more beneath his blunt, take-me-as-I-am exterior.  He won't admit to it, but he secretly enjoys watching rom-coms with me, and he loves watching Pride & Prejudice, one of my all-time favorite movies.  Don't think I'm swiping his man card just yet... he also likes going days without showering, sleeping outside under the stars (without a tent), growing a beard... all that man-stuff.  

A few months into marriage, I received this text from Scott. 

All the heart eyes and warm fuzzies for this one.  We've pretty much stuck to this in our marriage, foregoing birthday presents, nice houses, new cars.  We buy used appliances when we can and do our best to buy as many things "second hand" as we can.  Instead, we spend our money on experiences together and travel.  And you know what? It's better than diamonds.  Our home may be humble and small, and we may zip around town in a green 1998 Honda Civic with paint chipping from the hood (that sounds more like a podracer than a car), but it means that we get to walk hand in hand to see some of the most beautiful places in the world, places we've dreamed of or drooled over in photos.  

I think God promises these same things to us.  Life with Him is very similar-- when we respond to His call to walk away from the sparkly temptations of this world, He promises that it will be better than diamonds.  He promises that life walking with him is more beautiful than the riches of the world.  He invites us to something better--something more than material things--diamonds, investments, trust funds.  The eternal life He promises is better than diamonds.  If you've tasted the riches of His love, you know this to be true.  And if you haven't, you're invited in.  You're invited into the love of a King who loved you so much that He died for you.  He was fully God and fully man, born of a virgin.  He came to Earth and lived a perfect life, was persecuted, nailed to a Cross, and died for the sins of you and me and the whole world.  And 3 days later, He rose from the grave--fulfilling the prophesies and proving that He had conquered death once and for all.  Oh, I pray these things for you, if you do not know the riches of His love.  

Because let me just say that more than anything I've ever known, I know that His love is better than diamonds.

XO,

C