Recently I was sitting on our deck overlooking gorgeous Dillon Lake in Colorado on a beautiful, sunny day. The lake shimmered with sparkles of light, as if millions of diamonds were dancing on the surface. The dazzling light drew my thought back to a time several years before, when I had been praying deeply about the spiritual significance of diamonds and how those ideas relate to each of us as reflections of God.

I had woken up one morning to find the diamond in my wedding ring missing—I saw only a gaping hole where it had been. I immediately searched the sheets, blankets, and bedroom floor, and then the rest of the house, but to no avail. I was sure the diamond had been there the day before, so I concluded it must be somewhere in the house. Over the next several days I continued to look for this tiny, shiny gem, feeling almost frantic at times. I also began to pray.

As I diligently tried to find the diamond, I began to ask myself why I valued it so much. Of course, since it came from my wedding ring, it had sentimental value, but it also had monetary value as a gemstone. Then I began to think more deeply about what this diamond represented spiritually, and what ultimately had real value and substance in my life.

I remembered that when I’d bought the diamond, the jeweler had told me there were four elements to look for in choosing a stone: color, weight, density, and clarity. To a jeweler these qualities mean one thing, but to a spiritual thinker they could mean something quite different.

What came to me in prayer was that color represented spiritual individuality, or variation in expression. Weight represented spiritual substance, balance. Density represented spiritual depth and power. Clarity symbolized purity and light.

I quickly realized that these spiritual qualities cannot disappear from our lives or our spiritual makeup, because we are reflections of God. In fact, each of us possesses these elements in abundance as gifts from God, our Creator.

God simply doesn’t allow for loss of any spiritual qualities from our lives, and we don’t have to accept loss of anything good. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy tells us: “Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul” (p. 269). God, divine Soul, governs everything—from a situation with a lost diamond, to the most pressing needs humanity faces—and our prayers to perceive this divine control always make a difference.

Spiritual qualities cannot disappear from our lives or our spiritual makeup.

My prayers led me to think about the true spiritual makeup of everything and everyone with whom I came into contact. I knew that behind any picture of an unhappy disposition or even an illness or disability, was the lovely, unique, pure, spiritually substantial likeness of the Divine. That true character was the only real essence of every individual I met, and I could love them deeply for being that precious gem. In her song “In His Eyes,” Mindy Jostyn eloquently describes God’s ideas as “cut one of a kind”—each of us is so special and needed by God to express Her wholeness. We never need compare ourselves or our experience to anyone else.

As I prayed, I saw more and more clearly that each person is so valuable to, and valued by, God. We are all worth so much to God, and each of us is worthy of happiness, companionship, home, health, purposeful living. These are ours simply because we are God’s beloved, and these manifestations of God’s goodness never can be lost. Our substance is spiritual, immaculate, perfect, powerful, flawlessly formed. As the Bible says, “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond ... the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created” (Ezekiel 28:13).

So did that diamond from my ring ever turn up? There’s an interesting ending to the story. I wore another ring for about six months, until one day when I was visiting my mother and told her what had happened. She replied that she had a chipped piece of a diamond tucked away in a drawer that she hadn’t looked at in years. She said she didn’t know if it was in good condition, but that I could take it to a jeweler to be examined and could put it in my ring if it was of adequate quality. As it turned out, the diamond was in perfect condition—and fit my ring exactly. I was very grateful to have it replaced as a gift from my mother. My need was met in an unplanned, God-directed way—something I have seen happen many times since.

Spiritual thoughts and ideas transform our everyday challenges into spiritual victories by helping us know what is real. They are worth infinitely more than diamonds, and so are you.