Remember your dreams for your child and family before anything went wrong? What your hopes were for your children? I’ve seen many families go into this battle and lose hope, then regain it and finish with dreams that were actually better than the originals because of the battle. Truly a suffering-to-joy journey.
There is an old Jewish folk story called The King’s Diamond. In it, there is a king who had great wealth and power over a vast land. He had a diamond that became world-famous because it was not only flawless but also as big as a grapefruit. Many leaders of countries, kings and dignitaries from around the globe, had heard about the diamond and would make the journey to the king’s palace just to see it. They would approach the throne, usually with an expert jeweler from their own country, and request to see the diamond. The king would pull out a golden box adorned with other precious stones, open it and pull out a cloth bag that protected the perfect diamond, then hand it to the jeweler to be “judged.” Every time this happened, and it happened hundreds of times, the jeweler would be astonished and exclaim, “It is flawless! Perfect!” and hand it to his king. On one such day, as a jeweler was passing the diamond, he dropped it on the floor. When he picked it up, he discovered a long, arced scratch on one of the largest flat surfaces of the diamond. The king was devastated as he looked at the diamond. It was not perfect anymore but flawed. “It’s ruined!” he shouted.
After weeks of solitude in depression, the king finally embarked on trying to find a jeweler gifted enough to restore the diamond to perfection. He offered a great reward and had hundreds respond, but they all said the same thing. It was irreparable. Destined to be flawed forever. Eventually, jewelers stopped coming. The king lost hope and returned to his depression. And then one day, an old master craftsman from a local community walked into the palace requesting to see the diamond. The king was not impressed by the first sight of him, but he decided to hear him out. The old craftsman looked at every face of the diamond, especially the one with the scratch, and then he looked the king in the eye and said with calm confidence, “Sire, I will not only restore this diamond to its prior state of flawless beauty, I will make it better.”
The king was so taken aback by the confidence of the man that he agreed to let him take the diamond with him. He was gone for a long time – months. The king was overwhelmed with anxiety as he waited. It seemed endless! Then one day the old master craftsman returned to the palace and went before the king. He handed the king the box. The king opened it, pulled out the cloth bag and took the diamond from it. He looked at it with his magnifying glass. Then he gasped, “It is truly more beautiful than it was before! It is flawless!”
The master craftsman was gifted in his skill of working on precious stones. But his bigger gift was in being able to see “possibilities” no matter the situation. When others saw the flaw – a scratch on the once perfect diamond – the master craftsman saw a work of art, a masterpiece. He used the scratch as a beginning of a masterpiece. It became the stem for the rose that the old man carved at the top of it. It was indeed more beautiful than ever before. Perfect, flaws and all![vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” content_placement=”middle” css=”.vc_custom_1539254403167{background-image: url(https://www.capstonetreatmentcenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/GettyImages-1.jpg?id=299) !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}” el_class=”full-width-section custom-inner-page quote-section”][vc_column_text el_class=”quote”]For we are God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works that He prepared a long time ago (the Greek word used here means before creation…) good works that He prepared before creation.[vc_column_text el_class=”quote-author”]Ephesians 2:10[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1539246994984{background-color: #ffffff !important;}” el_class=”one-second-text-section”][vc_column el_class=”innerpage__text-wrapper”][vc_column_text el_class=”innerpage__text”]You might be in a deep valley right now and the situation seems so awful that a hope like that is too terrifying to have. I remember that place as a dad. I remember hoping in the darkest hour, then realizing like I’d been shocked that if I hoped it and it all fell apart again (and it did many times), I might be so overwhelmed that it would crush me. It became terrifying to hope…to imagine a time after the battle that everything would be good, normal, as planned. To survive, I pulled back on my hope and substituted it with, “Maybe if I keep trying I will be able to hope again someday.” And although the process was slower than I wanted it to be, it eventually happened. First came the darkest hours, then the loss of hope, then the fear of hoping, then the possibility of hope returning if I stayed in there, then darker hours, then some glimpses of light in the tunnel and finally hope. And hope was, and is, the most amazing power in any trial. Please do what is best for you at this point. From either place, either being hopeful or guarded because it is too risky for you to hope at this point, you can read this book, take in the info, sort through it and become clearer on what needs to be done and more capable of doing it. And that’s hopeful!
I believe that we are not alone in this battle