I was reading the story of ‘The precious pearl’ the other day only this time the story was dressed up for our younger viewers.
Once upon a time, there was a merchant who had everything he wanted. Houses, cars, a fish pond, and even his favourite fluffy hat with a feather in it. The stock market was booming and he had more money under his bed than he could ever possibly spend. Until… he spots a pearl at the local jeweller. This pearl is an absolute corker! It is seriously big, rich and creamy in colour and there is not a blemish to be seen.
It costs an eye-wateringly huge sum of money of course and so begins the biggest real estate/garage sale ever.
The merchant sells everything. Even the fish in the fish pond. Even his lovely fur coat and he is left with just three things. His nightshirt, his favourite hat and a pair of boxers.
Sadly he is still just $6.20 short. The jeweller is a harsh hombre and won’t budge., but…says “Sell me your lovely floppy hat. The one with the feather in it”.
Now you might have thought that the merchant would have wept, cried, pleaded, negotiated or simply walked away from the deal. But he doesn’t. He laughs and in the time it has taken you to read this, he is minus his favourite hat and has his precious pearl. When we hear this story we think that the punchline is that the Master is like the pearl. There is a cost to discipleship. There is a cost to love but it is worth more than anything in the whole wide world. And that’s right. The cost of love is immeasurable. But what if … what if …we are the precious pearl?