"Pray For Pearls"

Written by Rob Bailes


Have you ever had an irritation that wouldn't go away, no matter what you tried? I have and sometimes it is the smallest things that can drive us crazy! I have been through times in my life when I prayed for relief and for blessings day after day, only to awake to another day of the same irritating situations. I would normally just take charge and remove anything of discomfort from my life. Have there been times when God has allowed situations in your life that you just couldn't deal with entirely on your own?

Maybe a difficult relative that you must care for long term; a financial problem that looks hopeless; a co-worker or associate that lays awake at night thinking of ways to make your life miserable; maybe even a spouse who doesn't seem to care about the needs of the people who love them.

The list goes on and on! By now you are probably thinking, "What does this have to do with praying for pearls? I just want the pearls!".

For thousands of years, most seawater pearls were retrieved by divers working in the Indian Ocean, in areas like the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and in the Gulf of Mannar. Starting in the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), the Chinese hunted extensively for seawater pearls in the South China Sea. When Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Western Hemisphere, they discovered that around the islands of Cubagua and Margarita, some 200 km north of the Venezuelan coast, was an extensive pearl bed. One discovered and named pearl, La Peregrina, was offered to the Spanish queen.

Margarita pearls are extremely difficult to find today and are known for their unique yellowish color. The most famous Margarita necklace that any one can see today is the one that then Venezuelan President Romulo Betancourt gave to Jacqueline Kennedy when she and her husband, President John F. Kennedy paid an official visit to Venezuela.

Quality natural pearls are very rare jewels. The actual value of a natural pearl is determined in the same way as it would be for other "precious" gems. The valuation factors include size, shape, quality of surface, orient and luster. Single natural pearls are often sold as a collector's item, or set as centerpieces in unique jewelry. Very few matched strands of natural pearls exist, and those that do often sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. (In 1917, jeweler Pierre Cartier purchased the Fifth Avenue mansion that is now the New York Cartier store for US$100 cash and also bought a double strand of matched natural pearls valued at the time at US$1 million.)

Typically the men who search for pearls must bring 3 tons of oysters in for every perfect pearl that is found and a pearl will take about two years to fully develop! Does that give you a better understanding of how precious this treasure truly is to those who collect them?

What can we learn from all of this knowledge today on pearls? Well, we see how rare and valuable the pearl is to mankind, or should I say women, as most are worn by the women who have been honored by someone who thinks very highly of them in presenting such a gift. I would rather us turn our attention to the oyster though, in order to understand the rarity of the pearl.

The oyster was created by God in such a way that their bodies create this jewel in the process of dealing with an irritation or intruder. Pearls are formed inside the shell of oysters as a defense mechanism to a potentially threatening irritant such as a parasite inside its shell, or an attack from outside, injuring the mantle tissue. The oyster creates a pearl sac to seal off the irritation.
The mantle of the oyster deposits layers of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the form of the mineral aragonite or a mixture of aragonite and calcite held together by an organic horn-like compound called conchiolin. The combination of aragonite and conchiolin is called nacre, which makes up mother-of-pearl. It is the nacre that gives the pearl it's shine and luster! Many times the pearl develops due to intruders or even from an injury that separates a piecce of the mantel from the oyster shell.

Isn't it amazing how wonderfully made this creature is that can produce something of such value and beauty over a two year period, all because of some uninvited irritation or an attack that brought an injury that couldn't heal? God has a pearl for each of us who have been through life's difficulties. It is through the intrusions; the attacks; the challenges and the irritations that God draws us to His throne in prayer! He awaits us with open arms as we run to Him for refuge! As we pray each day for His comfort and His protection, all the while knowing that the irritations still exist, He pours out His love and His compassion on us. It is this very comfort that applies coat after coat over our pain until that day that we see how much more valuable our lives have become to God.

He is able to use us as a precious jewel, adding us to His strand of matching pearls as a testimony of His love and beauty. I urge you to pray, call out to Him each day; as He is waiting to apply His healing balm of love and compassion over the irritations of your life.

Let's take time to look at chapter thirteen where Matthew has written the words that Jesus spoke, as He gave comparison to our lives and the value of a single pearl,

Mat 13:45-51
45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:
46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:
48 Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.
49 So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,
50 And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
51 Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord.