Selenite and Satin Spar

I am filled with purity and light.

     Gypsum is a very common mineral, occurring in all parts of the world. Its crystals are softer than your fingernail, forming in clusters of peach, pink, off-white or white crystals that are usually prismatic, tabular, or acicular. When gypsum forms in flaky clear sheets or tabular crystals that are clear as ice, it is called selenite, and the rare hourglass selenite forms with brown hourglass phantoms inside. Satin spar is often called selenite as a trade name, but it is different in habit, growing in fibrous columns.

     Both the crystal clear selenite crystals and the fibrous wands of satin spar bring to mind bright, gleaming light. Satin spar especially shines like silken angels wings, reflecting any light in ripples across the surface. Purity, light, eternity, and higher planes; this is what these stones make me think of. Due to our worldly situation, we cannot fully reach this image yet, but for those of us who've received the Good News, we are able to grow closer and closer to holiness by striving to live our lives in Godly and holy ways.

     "If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. 

     "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 

     "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all."

Colossians 2:20-3:11

    Here we see the guidelines to this pure lifestyle: set aside the beliefs and teachings of humans, because they do display partial truth and partial wisdom, but are no longer your priority. In our new life in God, we have access to the true wisdom of Heaven and the promise of eternity. Thus, we must cast away the actions of the world and be renewed in love and light.

     "Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.'" 

John 3:5-8

     When we accept God's gift of rebirth and eternal life, we are reborn in Spirit. Our souls are no longer held by the rules of the world, but by the rules of the Holy Spirit. And as John 4:23-24 says, "the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." Truth, as used here, means that we rejoice in Him in the ways that are true, and also that we worship Him in our truth, in our actions and in our lives, and in our hearts and the way we think about others.

     "Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Colossians 3:12-17

     With these things in practice in our lives, we are equipped with the light-spreading tools of spiritual warfare, fighting the darkness by bringing light into others' lives. 

     "In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

Matthew 5:16