Life on earth would not be worth much if every source of irritation were removed. Yet most of us rebel against the things that irritate us, and count as heavy loss what ought to be rich gain. We are told that the oyster is wiser, that when an irritating object like a bit of sand gets under the mantle of its shell, he simply covers it with the most precious part of his being and he makes of it a pearl. The irritation that it was causing is stopped by encrusting it with the pearly formation.
A true pearl, therefore, is simply a victory over irritation. Every irritation that gets into our lives today is an opportunity for pearl culture. The more irritations the devil flings at us, the more pearls we may have. We need only to welcome them and cover them completely with love, the most precious part of us, and the irritation will be smothered out as a pearl comes into being.
(J. Vernon McGee, referencing quote by his friend, Dick Sumi, on his Thru the Bible radio program)
Pearls sound like a fine thing, don’t they? They have a good reputation. Worth holding onto, worth selling everything for, worth protecting. But the beginning of a pearl is dirt. And the oyster, who cannot simply reject the irritant, has made a plan to accept it, cover it, and turn it into something beautiful.
There are lots of dirt stories in my life when hopes and dreams died. When I thought I was right but was instead very, very wrong. Thank God, mostly they aren’t dirt anymore.
They are becoming quite dear and lovely in my mind.
I hope I can cover them with the most precious part of me and share them with you. Maybe we can watch how a pearl is made.
The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it was that he saw in plain language.
John Ruskin