Pearls are a symbol of classic beauty and elegance. After all, the Queen of England is known for her signature three strand pearl necklace. You either love the classic elegance of pearls and consider them the quintessential jewelry that never goes out of style or you equate them with 1950s domestic goddess status. Donna Reed vacuuming in her high heels and pearls comes to mind, and I’ve read several articles ridiculing this style choice as evidence of the patriarchy oppressing women. (The real reason probably has more to do with the fact June Cleaver wore them first–a byproduct of the cameraman’s opinion on the beauty of the actress’s neck– rather than some stereotypical vision of what housewives should look like.)
Whatever your opinion of pearls themselves, we can agree that pearls are valuable things. The average cost of a natural pearl necklace ranges anywhere from $500 to $25,000 if they’re Tahitian pearls or $300 to $10,000 if they’re Akoya pearls. That’s a lot for a strand of pearls, especially when you consider what pearls are and how they’re made. We’re basically paying a fortune for the oyster equivalent of gallstones!
Pearls are the result of minor irritations that get into the shells of certain mollusks. These mollusks produce a substance called nacre that coats the irritant. The layers build up over time until a pearl is formed. Not all mollusks form pearls. Pearls are only formed by those mollusks that produce nacre, a substance usually seen in the lining of their shells. These are the only pearls worthy of being used in jewelry making. The irritants that cause pearls to form get into the shells during feeding. The shells open to allow free flow of water into and out of the shell. The mollusk feeds on microscopic algae in the water, but the water also brings with it irritants such as small bits of shell, a scale, or a parasite. You can read more about pearls here.
So why am I telling you about pearls? Well, because I think we can learn a valuable spiritual lesson from the mollusks that form pearls. Honestly, I have more in common with the mollusk that formed the pearl than I do with the Queen of England or Donna Reed. I might be a full time homemaker, but I’m definitely not the domestic goddess that Donna Reed has come to symbolize. I think in a way that God is calling all of us to be oysters in our lives. That may sound strange to you, but bear with me. I’ll give you a few reasons why I think oysters for God is a part of the Christian way of life.
1. God wants us to be open. The mollusks that form oysters keep their shells open. Water flows in and out of the shell. God wants us to be open, too. He wants us to serve as vessels for His presence: His living water. As God pours His Spirit, His Word, and His Living Water into us, we feed on the spiritual sustenance we find there. Then, we are to release that Spirit, Word, and Water into the world around us. The world sees God through us. God uses ordinary, everyday people to be His miracle-working hands and feet. If we shut our shells, so to speak, and refuse to pour out what God is pouring into us, eventually we become full and we stagnate. We no longer grow in our spiritual walk. We have to pour out as well as receive in order to be spiritually healthy, growing people.
2. Life is full of minor irritants. Look around you. There is potential for offense and irritation everywhere! How often do we lose patience with our children? How often does something happen that throws our schedule completely out the window? And don’t we all have that one family member who gets under our skin? Being open, the way God wants us to be open, opens us up to the potential to be hurt, to be offended, to be irritated. When we’re open to the world around us, there’s absolutely no way to keep the minor irritations of life from getting to us. They will come. We can’t avoid them, but we can cover them with grace.
3. God wants us to use the “nacre” of grace and the process of forgiveness to cover those offenses. Think about it. Oysters that produce pearls have nacre in their shells long before the irritant gets in there. God has gifted us with His abundant grace and forgiveness through the work of Jesus on the cross. When we give our lives to Jesus, we are made new in Christ. In Christ. That’s the important part. It means that we have what Jesus has. Jesus was full of grace. So are we. Or at least we should be. That grace should be all over us. If you were to open us up and look closely at our hearts, they should be wall to wall grace! Because we have God’s grace already in us, we have the ability to pour that grace out to others.
When someone offends us or causes us harm, God tells us to forgive. Forgiveness doesn’t remove what happened. It doesn’t justify it. It doesn’t make it okay. Instead, forgiveness takes the offense and places it under God’s grace. It trusts God to handle vindication and retribution for the offense. When we make the choice to forgive someone, we cover the offense with grace. The more we forgive others, the more grace we pour out. Those layers of grace build up. Bit by bit, we’re becoming more like God. We’re become the masterpiece He created us to be. And we have a treasure of pearls to show for it! All those offenses that we have forgiven and covered with grace, all those acts of obedience, become treasure!
So the next time an offense comes your way, will you be an oyster for God? Will you allow His grace to work all things for good? Will you allow Him to turn that negative experience, that hurt, into treasure? Or will you hang onto the offense and let it continue to cause you pain? You have the choice. You can have beautiful pearls or ugly gallstones. What will your choice be?
A Beautiful Mess 