What is a natural pearl?
Most of us know how pearls are made. Just recently I 'discovered' that my own pair of pearls purchased on my honeymoon in St. Marteen are NOT real ~ totally shocked me when I went to have them restrung!
When a foreign substance invades an oyster, the intruder slips into the mantle tissue of the mollusk, causing irritation. It is somewhat like the oyster getting a splinter. “The oyster’s natural reaction is to cover up that irritant to protect itself,” as one source states.
As a natural reaction to this, the oyster secretes a substance known as nacre to envelope the foreign invader as a part of its self-protection. The nacre is secreted over and over creating layers around the irritant to make it smoother.
Over time, the layers create a shiny pearl of various colors (white, pink, black, red, blue and green). Pearls reach their full size over an average span of three years. Thus, the reason for their worth.
What is a cultured pearl?
Cultured pearls develop much in the same way. However, while natural pearls develop without human intervention, cultured pearls are cultivated through human manipulation, depositing the irritant within the mollusk.
What is a peril? The dictionary defines peril as something that causes an exposure to injury, loss, or destruction, grave risk, jeopardy, or danger.
Is there an irritant in
your life, something that has attempted to destruct your life or invade your spirit? Has some circumstance, trial, or grief surrounded you, threatening injury or loss? (the answer is YES, because we all have or have had them!)
Some of our troubles emanate from our own human manipulation like the cultured pearl. We then try to cover them over by our own efforts. This usually results in the problem remaining as grit stuck in our craw rather than becoming a pearl.
However, some trials develop without our intervention. Like the irritant of the natural pearl, they just slip their way into our lives. And we wonder, how'd that happen?
The Lord takes
all our perils,
all those irritants and trials, hurts and heartaches, losses and griefs, and covers them over with His balm. He pours out the oil of His Spirit, layer upon layer, upon our souls and spirits until we have “beauty for ashes” and “the oil of joy for mourning.” (Isa. 61:3)
I don’t think it is any coincidence that the gates into heaven are each made of one gigantic pearl. (Rev. 21:21) God has taken all the perils, trials, and tribulations from the beginning of time and molded them into the pearly gates.
We shall enter those portals of pearl, passing through and leaving behind all that has grieved us throughout our lives, leaving our tears outside the gate and entering into the fullness of joy. I recently had my grandmother's pearls restrung. I wore them to her funeral in June ... and such a memory of having them and wearing them in honor!
Just as someone once said, “Nearly all God’s jewels are crystallized tears,” so all our perils are encapsulated
pearls.
How long has it taken to make a pearl out of your irritant, your hurt, your peril? Are you still waiting for your pearls from perils? Hang on; it takes time. In God’s timing, all your troubles will be transformed into worthy pearls.
A pearl...a healed wound, born out of affliction. Are there any pearls in your life?
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