Below the earth’s relatively calm surface lies an entirely different world. The temperature here is many times that of the surface and the pressure from the weight of the earth above causes many tons to be pressed down on every square inch. This is a very hostile environment. If just the right sequence of events occurs, a quantity of sufficiently pure carbon may be found here in this place, and there, by action of a specific combination of heat, pressure, and time be slowly changed into something special.
This process is not quick or easy. It involves an extremely large amount of energy. It is stressful on the carbon itself, and only the purest of it will be transformed into the final product. The carbon, which used to be a rather unorganized and not so useful stuff has undergone changes on the atomic level, actually rearranging itself, forming bonds among its own atoms in such a way that allows it to become the hardest and most durable known natural substance.
But, after this process is completed, the carbon’s journey is far from over. At this stage, it could easily be mistaken for just another rock from its surroundings. There is really nothing special about its outward appearance, and to the untrained eye it might even be ugly. If discovered, it might just be thrown away or even used as gravel in a road. But it knows what it really is and where it came from, and it knows what it is doing here in this terrible place. It even knows what it has the potential to become.
It now has to somehow find its way back to the surface, to a much more peaceful place where there are people who are able to see it for what it really is. This return trip can also be very stressful. Once cut and polished into a gem, this rock becomes much more than just some carbon that was compressed into a crystal. It becomes one of the most desirable gemstones of all: a diamond.
Plain charcoal and even graphite from a pencil are chemically the same as the most valuable diamond. The difference between them is the way that their particles are arranged, which comes as a result of the time that they spent in the harsh environment below the earth’s surface. Only after spending many years in this environment is carbon ready to come to the surface and shine as a gem.
The process that carbon undergoes when becoming a diamond can be used as a metaphor for our lives and the plan that our Heavenly Father has for us as His children. We are not ready to go back and enjoy all that's available until we have experienced being inside of a mortal body, some for only a brief time, others over a long mortal life. There are some things about us that need to be squeezed out or burned away. While here, we get to experience the ups and downs of mortal life, in order to give us reason to be happy when times are good, and to allow us to see the greatness of eternal glory in spite of earth and hell.
Our families are a wonderful blessing we are given to help us on our way through this time. We are blessed with hard times in this life, sometimes very hard times! Difficult decisions without easy solutions face us. Bad things happen to us that cause us to wonder why we were chosen to endure them. We are constantly attacked on all sides even when we think we don’t need any more trials. But all of this happens for a reason.
Satan is allowed to tempt and try us so that we have the chance to prove ourselves, that we are more interested in following our Father. Somehow, we make it through this place, but not without first being transformed into something that we cannot accomplish on our own. Only after we have been turned into a spiritual diamond by the heat and pressure of living on Earth are we ready to return to live with Heavenly Father. Jesus Christ is the one who is willing to cut and polish us if we let Him. He enables us to be pure again so that we can live with God and with our families for eternity in a state of never-ending happiness.
"For I, the Lord, rule in the heavens above, and among the armies of the earth; and in the day when I shall make up my jewels, all men shall know what it is that bespeaketh the power of God."
Doctrine & Covenants 60:4
