Monday, February 21, 2011

The Pearl of Great Price...


As I am getting into the driver's seat of my car this morning, on my way to work, I noticed a tiny, white, shimmering object lying in the middle of the seat. Right beside it was an even smaller gleaming, gold, twig-like object. It was my wife, Star's, pearl ear ring laying out in plain daylight, as sovereign as a Christmas turkey presented on a dinner table. The ear ring was accompanied by it's only companion, a nearly mircoscopic gold stem. These two objects could not have been more prominently placed on the seat if a women's apparel fashion photographer had spent hours placing them there himself.

When I saw them, I immediately reached down to grab them. My finger picked up the gold stem, but my thumb inadvertently caused the pearl to roll, ever so slowly and ominously, back to the tiny crevass at the base of the chair. (You see where this is going, don't you?) Having big and lumbering hands, I reached down to grab the ear ring, but my grabbing and clutching only drove the pearl deeper into the seat. I poked and prodded and pulled and jabbed. No luck. The pearl just went deeper and deeper and deeper into the seat. It was like it had learned some sort of lesson about burrowing into the sand, from it's one time maker, the oyster shell that had birthed the pearl.

My wife is now taking a nap, and I have to figure out a way to tell her how I lost her pearl ear ring. How I really tried to get it. And I did, but that I only made a bad situation worse. Any ideas? Are there ways to get into the inner guts of a drivers seat in a car without dismantling the entire transmission? Seriously, I want to know. Text me...

However, the deeper truth I have been thinking about is the story (parable) that Jesus told about a similar lost pearl in the book of Matthew, "The kingdom of God is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he sold everything he had and bought it." (Matt. 13:45)

I wonder if the merchant was looking for fine pearls in the seat of his car. Probably not likely. I wonder if he had to dismantle something in order to get it. Maybe. I wonder if he felt a sense of loss about the pearl that he wanted to own, or possibly re-retrieve. Surely. I wonder if he told his wife as he was doing it, or just went ahead and did it.

I had better go out and dig the pearl out of my car...

All for Now,
GB

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