Pearl of Great Price

There is a parable told in the Bible about a pearl that is considered to be extremely valuable, so valuable in fact that it someone would sell everything they have to obtain it.  In the same regard there is also a parable about a great treasure hidden in a field.  Again, the treasure was found to be so valuable that someone would sell all they have so that they could purchase the field.

This analogy is really easy to understand when we deal with tangible values.  I can understand trading a piece of silver for a piece of gold.  I would trade a Ben Wallace basketball card for a Michael Jordan card.  I would trade having Michael Vick as a quarterback for Matt Ryan (too soon?).  The point is, in my mind I can understand very tangible items, because they have a tangible value.  While this parable works for understanding these things, it has such a deeper meaning.

The promise found in these parables is so much more valuable than money, than possessions, than anything you could put hands on.  The promise goes deeper, to the places of need, loneliness, hurt and pain within.  In our own power and understanding, grasp at whatever we see that can meet us in our internal pain.  When we are hungry we grab something quick and accessible.  When we are lonely, we reach out to anyone who can just be near and nurse away pain.  I love the way author Chuck Palahniuk  refers to this; he calls us “noiseaholics and quietaphobes.”

Despite the external evidence that seems to say there is no rest, no ultimate solution to these needs, there is a pearl of greatest price.  When we stop fighting these things, and allow ourselves to sit in pain and loneliness, it is then that God comes to meet us in these things.  He comes and meets us and reveals the pearl of greatest price – the experience of being wholly loved.  When you experience deep loneliness, you are willing to do anything to experience healing.  From every person around you, the best you could hope to get is a medicated fix…but God can offer healing to these deep needs.

The healing touch of God, to know Him and trust Him with every bit of your life, to know the full love that comes from Him, it is a treasure in a field…a pearl of great cost.