Today’s topic for the Carnival of Beauty is “Aging Gracefully.” HA! I almost skipped out on this one. I wrote a rough draft yesterday, trying to be humorous about it — then I remembered I’m not funny; it sounded like someone trying to BE funny. But I thought of another idea as I drove home a few minutes ago after dropping off my son at preschool.

When I was 19, I spent a month living with a French family an hour outside of Paris. One weekend, we went to visit an aunt and uncle who lived in Antwerp, Belgium. We were sitting outside in a cafe one afternoon, and I didn’t say much — my command of the French language limited me to a few trite phrases and lots of smiling. These French meals usually lasted at least two hours, so I had plenty of time to people watch. I kept seeing young men hurrying by, dressed in business suits, with chains attached from their belt loop to their briefcase.

Finally, I asked someone, “Why do they do that?” And they explained to me, “The suitcase. It’s full of diamonds.”

Oh, diamonds. Those rare and valuable jewels that are a girl’s best friend. Valuable enough that a man would attach a briefcase containing these treasures to his hip.

Years later, I heard a speaker say we’re all like diamonds, and God is constantly refining us, polishing us, cutting away our rough spots so that we can sparkle like a rare and beautiful jewel.

So, this is what aging is to me. We’re being polished in this process of growing older. I can’t say it any better than Carol of She Lives, who says this:

What we put inside of ourselves in the way of food, drugs, even our very thoughts, all have an effect on our physical bodies. If what we put inside of our bodies is pure, free of chemicals and toxins, and if we maintain pure thought lives, free of worry and bitterness, if we exercise in moderation and avoid extremes, we can actually slow down and even reverse the negative effects time can wreak on our physical selves. We can age gracefully. We can age in God’s grace.

Thank you, Carol. That last sentence is something I’ll always keep with me. I like to think that in the process of refinement, I’ll learn to give myself more grace as well as others around me. If someone offends me, I should continue to love through God’s grace … and not let that offense dull my sparkle. If I mess up in my own life, I can let go of my self-loathing and sense of failure by knowing I’m God’s child, and to Him, I’m perfect. I’ll always mess up this side of heaven. The older we get we realize more how imperfect our world is here, and we long for that place we cannot see without faith.

One day, I’d love to go to a diamond cave somewhere and see how a diamond looks when it’s uncovered from the ground, all gray and dusty. Then I want to go visit a jeweler and watch the process of how a diamond goes from dull to brilliant. That would be an exciting process to see.

We’re not a diamond hidden in a briefcase, attached by chain to a man’s hip; we’re a rare and beautiful treasure, being polished by our Master Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).