Oysters don’t grow pearls the way trees grow fruit. A bit of grit gets inside between the shell and the soft body of the oyster. If the oyster can’t get it out, it has two choices: cover it by making a pearl, or die. The oyster takes an irritant, an offense, an injury, and transforms pain into gain and hurt into healing… Or it dies.
The Bible asks “Does not even nature itself teach you?” What can we learn from an oyster?
Just as an oyster processes its pain, we need to process our pain… Or we die. Sometimes we humans relive the same piece of grief or offense, over and over, getting lost in the pain. We live in misery day after day, year after year, treasuring the pain instead of transforming it into treasure.
The oyster protects itself by layering the irritant with many coats of nacre, which is the substance on the inside of the shell, also called “mother-of-pearl.” Then out of pain and suffering, it forms an object of great beauty. The covered offending particle becomes a gem of great worth!
Your pain or offense stabs you in the innermost part of your heart, but as you coat the pain and deal with it, slowly over a long time, it heals and becomes a memory. It becomes a battle scar, a badge of honor showing what you have survived. It becomes a lesson that you can use to help others.
We have to choose to cover our pain and make it into a pearl. No one outside of that oyster can cause it to produce a pearl. The oyster has to decide for itself to coat the grit. Then it adds layer after layer. It’s not one and done.
The work of making a pearl is unseen, it’s hidden, it’s submerged. In our lives, it’s the same. No one sees your deep struggles. No one understands how hard it is for you to make it through each day. But God sees, and God can help you turn your trouble into great treasure.
How do you coat your pain and turn grit into treasure?
- Encase it and cast all your care on Him, for He cares for you. (1 Pet.5:7)
- Cover it in the knowledge that God’s grace is sufficient for you. His strength is made perfect in weakness. (2 Cor. 12:9)
- Muffle it by trusting in the Lord with ALL your heart and leaning not unto your own understanding. (Prov 3:5)
- Blanket it in prayer. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:6,7)
- Smother it with the Word of God. Find verses that help and read them over and over and over. Memorize them. Fill your heart with them.
- Wrap up your thoughts and write them in a journal – it pulls the pain out of the heart and puts it on paper where it can’t hurt you anymore.
- Bury it in tears to release your pent up emotions and help you reach a place of acceptance.
- Envelop it with the knowledge of these unfortunate truths: Life is hard. Problems happen. Losses are inevitable. Man is few of days and full of trouble. (Job 14:1) Acceptance of this can bring peace.
- Surround yourself with the people you love. Go to church to feed your soul. Then go have fun with friends.
- Insulate yourself from further pain. If the news depresses you, turn it off. If you have a toxic relationship, do your best to change it or end it.
Fun facts about pearls:
- Pearls are the only gems made by animals.
- Clams, mussels, abalone, and conches also make pearls.
- Pearls come in a variety of colors and shapes. Besides white, they come in black, pink, yellow, blue, green and various pastels. The color depends on what animal (clam, oyster, etc.) made it.
- If you cut them in half, they have rings, like a jawbreaker candy. The oyster makes them by adding various layers. Some layers can be different colors.
- Giant clams make giant pearls that are huge but ugly. They look like lumps of bread dough and are dull white, not iridescent.
- The world’s largest pearl was kept under the bed as a good luck charm for ten years. A fisherman discovered the pearl off the coast of the Philippines inside a giant clam. It measures 26 inches long and weighs nearly 75 pounds.
- A giant clam made a pearl weighing 15 pounds. It killed the pearl diver who accidentally got his hand stuck in the clam causing him to drown. It is called “the Pearl of Allah” because it looks vaguely like a face and the diver was Muslim. It’s ugly but worth $3.5 million.
Here are a few pearls of wisdom:
It takes an oyster two to three years to make a pearl. When you are injured, you don’t get over it overnight. You work long and hard to cover and heal it day by day, year by year. Jesus talked about the “pearl of great price.” There is a great personal cost of time and effort to make pearls in your life.
When light strikes the surface of a pearl, some of it is reflected, while some is absorbed. The light rays are reflected at many different angles. These reflections shine at different wavelengths, which are scattered in different directions, thereby causing the iridescent shine that we see. You are made to reflect His light and His glory in a beautiful way.
In cultured pearls, the owner deliberately puts a piece of an irritant into the oyster and waits. Could it be that God deliberately puts irritants in our lives in order to get us to grow pearls?
You can cut a diamond and increase its value or make it into many stones. If you cut a pearl, you destroy it. You may want to cut off and get rid of your weakness, but to remove it, you destroy God’s work in you. Paul prayed three times for his “thorn of the flesh” to be removed, but God said, “My grace is sufficient.” Here is a good quote: If you can’t remove it, work to improve it.
Abalone pearls are not white or round but they are exceedingly beautiful in their own way. They are an iridescent mixture of blue, green, aqua, black, and white, and they come in random shapes. Each of us shows God’s grace in our lives in a unique manner. We don’t need to compare ourselves to others.
One pearl is lovely, but a string of pearls has greater beauty and value. When we string ourselves together, we become greater and more valuable.
This has been a gritty past couple of years in our world and in our personal lives. Gravel is a type of grit. When you are stuck in the snow, you use gravel to get traction to get out and move forward. The purpose of today’s suffering is to propel into a better and more beautiful future and prepare us for the pearly gates.
In heaven’s New Jerusalem there are 12 gates of pearl. Those are some huge pearls! Some say that the suffering of the righteous is found inside those gates. If the average pearl takes 3 years to make, how long did the heavenly gates of pearl take to make? And how big were the oysters God used to make them?
Whatever trouble you have, just wait, God will transform it into something beautiful and iridescent. He is creating something awesome in this mixed-up, difficult world.
The following is a post by Rachel Colthorp, and wonderful and Godly writer who always comes up with a unique way of seeing things. Her writing regularly blesses me. The Gift of the Grit By Rachel Colthorp Beautiful beach scenes are picture perfect. But the reality of gritty sand, salty water, stinging jellyfish and broken sea shells underfoot can make the experience a little less beautiful than the photos. Beaches have grit. It gets in uncomfortable places, and makes you squirm. So does life. Beautiful dinners, they come with dirty dishes. Kids, they come with growing pains. Marriage, it comes with opportunities to mature. Spiritual growth, it comes with strain, stretching, struggle. Don't throw up your hands and chuck it all because you get a slice on your toe, a sting on your ankle or some sand in your....socks. It's part of the package. you don't EVER get just the pretty pictures, we ALL get some grit. Don't gripe about the gift of the grit.
