Sapphire - Color and Emotions

Sapphire is the official birthstone for the month of September as adopted by the American National Association of Jewelers in 1912. Sapphire is the non-red variety of corundum (the red variety of corundum is ruby). At 9.0 on the Mohs scale of hardness, sapphire is the second hardest natural mineral.

Blue is by far the most popular color for sapphires, but they can be almost any color, including yellow, green, white, colorless, pink, orange, brown, and purple. Padparadscha is the name for a rare orange-pink variety of sapphire and has a higher value than blue sapphires. The wonderful Kashmir sapphires, which were found in 1880 after an avalanche had come down in a height of 5000 m, and which were intensively mined then for eight years, have for all times set the standard for our ideas of the color of a top quality sapphire.

Blue is also the favorite color of about 50 per cent of the population, men and women alike. This color, which is strongly associated with sapphire, is also linked to emotions such as sympathy and harmony, friendship and loyalty. These emotions belong to features which are permanent and reliable – emotions where overwhelming and fiery passion is not the main element, but rather composure, mutual understanding and unshakeable trust. Sapphire blue has thus become a color related to anything permanent and reliable, and this is one of the reasons why women in many countries settle on Sapphire for their engagement rings. Sapphire symbolizes loyalty and faithfulness, while at the same time expressing love and yearning.

Sympathy, harmony, friendship, loyalty, faithfulness, competence, love. Do these words remind you of anything, or perhaps anyone? They sure remind me of Jesus. Jesus is most certainly sympathetic, and brings harmony to even a raging sea with just the sound of His voice (Mark 4:37-39). He wants to be our friend, and is loyal and faithful to that end, even unto His own suffering, and why? Because He loves us (John 3:16). And His love is both permanent and reliable.

NEXT POST: *The Gems of Exodus and Revelation - Sapphire

*The Gems of Exodus and Revelation are presented in twelve monthly installments and will explore the similarities between the stones in the ephod (breastplate) of Aaron and the stones of the New Jerusalem, and their relation to Jesus.