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Consider
the myriad irritations in our lives that get past the shell of our psyche
into our hearts where they either form something of beauty within us, or
we allow them to kill us spiritually. Everybody knows that
oysters sometimes make pearls; and that fascinating reality has been used
to illustrate many lessons. But pearls aren’t automatic. When an oyster,
which must ordinarily have an enviably calm life lying around eating soft,
pleasant food, somehow gets a bit of sand or a very tiny fish or crab
inside its shell, then one of two things will happen. The oyster will
create a pearl, or it will die. The pearl, a thing of beauty and value, is
the oyster’s way of staying alive after something very irritating has
gotten past its shell, into its heart.
Fine pearls
–
white, pink, cream, gray, black…..small, hard, rounded objects produced
primarily by
mollusks
such as
pearl oysters.
If they are real, natural or cultivated, they feel like rocks when you
rub them against your teeth. Pearls can be used in jewelry and also
crushed in cosmetics or paint formulations. Pearl is valued as a
gemstone
and is cultivated or harvested for
jewelry.
Jesus told his
disciples about the kingdom of heaven in parables, saying,
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man
found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had
and bought that field. Again, the kingdom
of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one
pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.”
Matthew 13:45-46.
So, what are the
meanings of the parables? The kingdom of heaven is more valuable than
anything else we can have, and a person must be willing to give up
everything to obtain it. The man who discovered the treasure in the field
stumbled upon it by accident but knew its value when he found it. The
merchant was earnestly searching for the pearl of great price and when he
found it, he sold everything he had to purchase it. God must
love pearl very much to use its symbolism to describe the gates of
heaven. “The
twelve gates of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, are each made of a
single pearl.” Revelation
21:21. Beautiful!
Russell Herman
Conwell (1843-1925) was the creator of “Acres of Diamonds,” a phenomenally
successful lecture he personally delivered over 6000 times, creating over
$4,000,000 in earnings. And that was in the early 1900s. Imagine what he
would be worth today! The premise of his lecture was that all things are
possible, right where you are, and now! Conwell told his own
parable of a man who wanted to be rich. He had heard all about diamonds,
how much they were worth and he wanted a mine of diamonds, and he lay
awake at night desiring what he thought would bring him wealth and thereby
happiness.
With information he
gained from consulting an old priest, he sold his farm, collected his
money, left his family in charge of a neighbor, and away he went in search
of diamonds. He began his search and wandered into Palestine, then into
Europe and at last when his money was all spent and he was in rags,
wretchedness and poverty, he stood on the shore of that bay at Barcelona,
in Spain, when a great tidal wave came rolling in between the pillars of
Hercules, and the poor, afflicted, suffering, dying man could not resist
the awful temptation to cast himself into that incoming tide, and he sank
beneath its foaming crest, never to rise in this life again.
Sad, you say?
Continue the story. The old priest came to visit the man’s successor and
the moment he opened that drawing room door, he saw a flash of light from
the mantle, on which was a diamond found right outside in the man’s own
garden. Historically true,
this diamond was but the first from the diamond mine of Golconda, the most
magnificent diamond mine in all the history of mankind, excelling the
Kimberly itself. Those ‘acres of diamonds’ have since that day decorated
the crowns of monarchs.
Where is your treasure? What are you
searching for? Maybe it’s right in your own backyard.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures
on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break in and steal. But
store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not
corrupt and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:19-20.
Sandra Mackey - All Rights
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