Shopping for Pearls

Getting a valuation for something can be easy.  Getting it sold for that price might be a totally different story.  Reality check of the value of something, is the price someone would actually be willing to pay to obtain it. 

Have you ever wondered about our value to God, the Father?  I heard a sermon on Matt 13:45-46 the other day which made me think.  Here are the verses:

45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. 46 When he found one very precious pearl, he went away and sold all he had and bought it.

What stood out about these verses was that it was a merchant who was searching for fine pearls.  Merchants are trained and experienced to know what to look for.  They won’t just buy any old pearl but can find a great and valuable one among many.  Once they find it, they are willing to pay anything, to get it.  In this case, the merchant sold all he had so he could afford to buy that one precious pearl.  Who knows what this pearl looked like?  It might have been beautiful but could have been dirty and forgotten somewhere in a box.  The owner might not have been aware of its value or that he even had it stashed away somewhere.    

Do you sometimes feel that you have been forgotten that God doesn’t see you and that He doesn’t care, that you are not important?  This could not be further from the truth.  We are so precious that God was willing to go to the extreme of offering His own Son, sacrificing His life and His blood in order to save us and get us back from the enemy.  We are so precious that we are worth the life and the blood of His only Son.  And that is not all, even if you were the only person on planet earth, God would still have sent His Son.   

Luke 15:3-9 (KJV) - 3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the pasture and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, 6 comes home, and calls together his friends and neighbors to tell them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep!’ 7 In the same way, I tell you that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous ones who do not need to repent.

8 Or what woman who has ten silver coins and loses one of them does not light a lamp, sweep her house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors to say, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost coin.’ 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels over one sinner who repents.”

Jesus also, on His own part, volunteered to buy us back.  The scripture says that He gave up everything:

2 Cor 8:9 (KJV) - For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

He gave all He had.  He died with **borrowed sins - yours and mine, He was buried in a borrowed grave, wearing borrowed clothes.  He had nothing left of His own.  He gave it all.  Why?  Because in His eyes, you are precious and worth it.

John 3:16-17 (AMPC) - 16 For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.  17 For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.

How can we ever repay Him?  We can’t, but we can honour His sacrifice by finding out exactly what it was that He purchased for us on the cross and by getting our minds renewed so we can live in the fullness of it.  We honour Him when we believe Him and His Word enough to search out the truth so we can become who He intended for us to be - being transformed into His image more and more every day.

**I borrowed the phrase.

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