In the Old Testament, God commanded that certain designs be created for glory and beauty, but they were also to express in a compelling way His nature
and love for His people.

The artist’s palette here is described as a human response to God’s blessings,
An offering of beauty to the Designer and Creator of existence, the ultimate source of all blessing and all beauty. 

  There are no words to describe an African sunset.  A pillar of fire ascended from where the sun, so sorry to go, had first slowly disappeared, like that which guided Moses in the Desert¾yet not of fire either, it was most like a precious stone, transparent, and yet deep.  All the colours of Africa are those of precious stones, the colours of the Revelations, while those of Europe are like flowers.  The Nile was of molten gold; and over against the west was a long line of purest blue, extending all along the east, sapphire blue, and over it a band of the most delicate rose-colour; and the whole sky was “so cloudless, clear, and purely beautiful that God alone was to be seen in heaven”.

This, with anticipation and human imagination, is a taste of the splendor of heaven.
This is God’s palette.

The foundation stones of the city wall were adorned with every kind of precious stone.  The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth; sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst.  And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each one of the gates was a single pearl.  And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.       Revelation 21:19-21

  The jewels symbolize more than the tribes being brought before God.  They also suggest God’s love for His people.  To Him, each tribe full of value and light as with the redeemed in Heaven.

       Olivia Cameo Lewis, 1999