Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
Luke 6:45b
Hi, I’m Pearl. I care a lot about what Jesus thinks. I’m trying to make it the only thing I care about. I hope it shows up in my life and in my writing.
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
If you are also a disciple of Jesus, I hope I challenge and encourage you in your pursuit.
I’ve written and am still recording a series of podcast-essays called In the Closet: Keeping Secrets with God in a Not So Secret World. If you are weary of social media culture, and if you struggle with finding a balance between living in this world and not living like the rest of the world–I think it will be a huge encouragement in your battle.
Along those lines, I truly believe kids need to keep one foot in this world and one foot in the Word, and so I am a big advocate for families who choose public school and shine their light in a dark world (Matthew 5:14-16). It’s maybe the hardest thing to do these days.
Once upon a time, I did a homeschooling experiment and wrote a funny book about it called Stay or Bail: A Homeschool Tale. Then I vowed never to homeschool again. Then coronavirus happened. Then I became a public school teacher. And now I live a weird de ja vu homeschooler life while trying to remove my foot from my mouth. Ha!
We lived on a farm, and you can read more about that and those adventures over at On Honey Creek.
Hey! I also draw terrible cartoons. It’s a coping mechanism. You can scroll through them on Instagram. The handle is @athomeedcartoons
