Carbon

A lot can be said about it. 

• Carbon forms the bulk of all living things — without carbon, there wouldn’t be a you or me!
• It bonds really well to both other elements and itself.
• There is a whole branch of chemistry devoted to it! (Organic Chemistry)

Pure carbon takes on a few different forms. Let’s look at two.

Graphite versus Diamond

Both, believe it or not, are composed of pure carbon. The difference is in the way the carbon atoms are arranged.

Graphite carbon atoms are arranged in layers making it soft and slippery. Because it breaks so easily, it is ideal to use in pencils. Graphite absorbs light and is black in color.

Diamond carbon atoms, on the other hand, are arranged tetrahedrally. This provides a strong, rigid structure that is extremely durable. Diamonds also disperse light. They act as a prism to separate white light into rainbow colors that radiate out.

One cool tidbit is that a single event can convert graphite to diamond. If subjected to high enough temperatures and pressure, the carbon atoms will rearrange. Still fully carbon, and yet completely different.

One of my favorite Bible verses is found at the end of the Christmas Story (an event if there ever was one) in Luke Chapter 2. At this point, Mary has given birth to Jesus. Angels have appeared to the shepherds and they go see the baby for themselves. Mary ponders all the things in her heart. And then we get verse 20.

“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

Luke 2:20

The shepherds returned.

They had just had this awesome God moment — this mountain top experience. They were on a high! They were on fire!

But had anything really changed?

When they woke up the next morning, they were still shepherds. They still had sheep. They still had the same jobs and duties to fulfill.

And the morning after that…

And the morning after that…

A week passed…

And another…

Jesus didn’t begin his earthly ministry or reveal his glory until his 30’s. For those shepherds who experienced that extraordinary night, there were a lot of ordinary days to follow.

The hard things were still there. The daily grind was still there. Was anything different?

I think the answer is found in the words that follow.

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God.

Perhaps circumstances hadn’t changed, but their attitudes had. Their perspective shifted. You could say the birth of Jesus was the event that changed those shepherd’s lives from graphite to diamond. Still fully carbon — but now with a whole new outlook. Those shepherds, like diamonds, acted like prisms that refracted the light and good news that had come into the world.

And so it is with us. Like the shepherds, we celebrate Christmas and the Light of the World coming to Earth. But we also carry the hope of Easter and Jesus Christ resurrected defeating death once and for all. 

Our circumstances may appear to not have changed. We still have the day-to-day muck and yuck to contend with. But Jesus’ coming into our world is the event that can change our lives from graphite to diamond.

At first glance, nothing has changed. And yet, because of Jesus, everything has changed.

Merry Christmas