Christ the Diamond, Supplying Every Need in Everlasting Light by Debbie Harris

Dear Reader,

This sonnet began as a single sentence about the promise that God meets every need according to His riches in Christ. As the image developed, the diamond became Jesus Himself—the One in whom those riches dwell and from whom they are given. The light that moves through Him is not merely brightness; it is the steady radiance that reaches both the soaring soul and the waiting one, supplying what is lacking and drawing forth praise. May the words point you to Him.

The Poet

Brief analysis of form

The poem is a Shakespearean sonnet: 14 lines of iambic pentameter arranged as three quatrains and a final couplet, with the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

• The first quatrain presents Christ as the diamond who supplies every need according to His riches.

• The second quatrain follows the movement of His light.

• The third quatrain turns to the royal heirs and the answering of their needs.

• The closing couplet gathers the response into victorious praise returned to Him.

The volta occurs between the octave and sestet (after line 8), shifting from the nature of the diamond to the experience of the heirs. The form gives the single image room to develop while still ending with the concentrated affirmation typical of the Shakespearean couplet.

Philippians 4:19 (KJV)

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Jesus Himself, the diamond of God’s glory,

supplies each need according to His riches,

cut so the radiance that dwells in Him

must traverse every facet of His graces.

It moves within the clarity of His will,

neither diminished nor by darkness stayed;

each waiting soul receives and rests until

it knows the brightness no night can invade.

The royal heirs who bear His covenant

are crowned with all they lacked and never earned;