Today at lunch I walked down 28th Street to the WMP Concert Hall where I joined about thirty other people for a mid-day performance. Linda Sinanian (violin) and Christine Dore’ (piano) were playing. Ms. Sinanian used a Stradivarius violin. That’s right -- a real, live, just-brought-out-of-the-locked-vault Stradivarius. "Farmer in the Dell" sounds good on a Stradivarius, but we were treated to far better than that. We heard pieces from Corelli (whose works inspired Stradivarius to build his treasured instruments), Paganini, Faure', and
contemporary Russian composer, Rodion Shchedrin.

Okay, why am I boring you with this? I am doing so to make an important point. I simply walked one block south and two blocks east and was treated to world-class music on an internationally famous instrument. And it was all right here in my own backyard.

The late Bishop Ernest Fitzgerald wrote a book some years ago entitled Diamonds Everywhere. He got the idea from a speech which Russell Conwell made over six thousand times, earning in excess of five million dollars (a lot of money now, but a tremendous amount in the 19th century). Conwell used the money to endow what is now Temple University. The title of his speech was "Acres of Diamonds," and its thesis was that we all have virtually unlimited gifts and potential close at hand if we simply look for it. In his book, Fitzgerald wrote: "Opportunity does lurk in everyone’s backyard."  (Diamonds Everywhere, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1983, p.16)

I find myself asking, "What might I be missing, some treasure(s) close at hand?" Vanessa Williams recorded a beautiful and popular song a few years ago. It was entitled "Save the Best for Last," a song about a man who searched for romance in a wide circle of people and places, failing to notice the constant friend at his side who had loved him all the while.

In a church I served once, a teenaged girl required heart surgery. She had been born with a defective valve, and the time had come for it to be replaced. Her parents, seeking to do the very best for their child, researched numerous cardiovascular centers all across America. Finally, they contacted an A-list heart surgeon, a famous man in a far-away state. He said to them by phone, "I'll be happy to perform the operation, but if it were my daughter I would send her to Dr. Burton." Burton is a surgeon who lives barely a mile from their home, and who performed the successful surgery flawlessly. Diamonds in our own backyards.

A friend here in the city told me of a small Italian restaurant in his neighborhood. He said the food is "consistently delicious,"
and the chef, Paolo, is courteous and friendly. However, when some friends from out of town came for a visit, he decided to impress them with a trip to a renowned place in Little Italy. The food was magnificent. At the close of the meal, they met the chef and complimented him. "Did you learn your craft in Sicily or Rome or Tuscany?," they inquired. He answered, "No, I studied here in New York, under a brilliant man named Paolo." Diamonds in our own backyards.

We could go on with the anecdotes, but you get the point. God grants us blessings upon blessings every day. As Jesus put it, we simply need "eyes that are willing to see" -- eyes of the heart that are not so far-sighted that they miss the countless treasures close at hand all the time. Whether those treasures are located in the home, the office, the neighborhood, or the church, we all have gifts and graces and blessings and beauties and potential and possibilities galore, if we will but notice. For most folks most of the time, there truly are "diamonds everywhere."