Beautiful Pearls



Jenny was a bright-eyed, pretty five-year-old girl.

One day when she and her mother were checking out at the grocery store, Jenny saw a plastic pearl necklace priced at $2.50. How she wanted that necklace, and when she asked her mother if she would buy it for her, her mother said, "Well, it is a pretty necklace, but it costs an awful lot of money. I'll tell you what. I'll buy you the necklace, and when we get home we can make up a list of chores that you can do to pay for the necklace.

And don't forget that for your birthday Grandma just might give you a whole dollar bill, too. Okay?" Jenny agreed, and her mother bought the pearl necklace for her.

Jenny worked on her chores very hard every day, and sure enough, her grandma gave her a brand new dollar bill for her birthday. Soon Jenny had paid off the pearls. How Jenny loved those pearls. She wore them everywhere to kindergarten, bed and when she went out with her mother to run errands.

The only time she didn't wear them was in the shower. Her mother had told her that they would turn her neck green!

Now Jenny had a very loving daddy. When Jenny went to bed, he would get up from his favorite chair every night and read Jenny her favorite story.

One night when he finished the story, he said, "Jenny, do you love me?"

"Oh yes, Daddy, you know I love you," the little girl said.

"Well, then, give me your pearls."

"Oh! Daddy, not my pearls!" Jenny said. "But you can have Rosy, my favorite doll. Remember her? You gave her to me last year for my birthday. And you can have her tea party outfit, too. Okay?"

"Oh no, darling, that's okay." Her father brushed her cheek with a kiss. "Good night, little one."





A week later, her father once again asked Jenny after her story, "Do you love me?"

"Oh yes, Daddy, you know I love you."

"Well, then, give me your pearls."

"Oh, Daddy, not my pearls! But you can have Ribbons, my toy horse. Do you remember her? She's my favorite. Her hair is so soft, and you can play with it and braid it and everything. You can have Ribbons if you want her, "Daddy," the little girl said to her father.

"No, that's okay," her father said and brushed her cheek again with a kiss. God bless you, little one. Sweet dreams."

Several days later, when Jenny's father came in to read her a story, Jenny was sitting on her bed and her lip was trembling. " Here, Daddy," she said, and held out her hand. She opened it and her beloved pearl necklace was inside. She let it slip into her father's hand.

With one hand her father held the plastic pearls and the other he pulled out of his pocket a blue velvet box. Inside of the box were real, genuine, beautiful pearls. He had had them all along. He was waiting for Jenny to give up the cheap stuff so he could give her the real thing.

So it is with GOD. He is waiting for us to give up the cheap things in our lives so he can give us beautiful treasure.

Isn't God good?

This made me think about the things I hold on to and wonder what God wants to give me in its place.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

James 1:17 ESV 

The Bagfill Folk



A long time ago in a far off world,
Where clouds of a different color swirled,
Lived the Bagfill Folk whose name it derives
From the way they tended to live their lives.

Each child when they became of age
Was taken aside by a self-styled sage
And given a bag made of magic and silk.
You never have seen a bag of this ilk.

'Take this bag,' the sage would say.
'You must take it everywhere, every day
'And collect pretty things and put them therein.
'To abstain from this task is a mortal sin.'

'And one day, I cannot tell you the date
'It might be soon or it might be late
'The bag will be full and on that day
'Your happiness ever more will stay.'

So out they would set, with their bags in hand,
Making their way through this far off land,
Doing their best to fill up their sacks
With treasures and trinkets and other nik naks.

But no matter how many prizes they got,
(Some got a few and some got a lot),
The bags never seemed to get any fuller
And the searching began to get duller and duller.

'What is the point?' they began to ask.
'Why are we doing this thankless task?'
Then the sages would come and make them feel small
For daring to question the point of it all.

One day there appeared (we’re not sure from where)
A man who the fear merchants just could not scare
He strode through the land with his head held high,
Giving and helping without asking why.

The sages tried every trick in the book
To make others think that this man was a crook,
But to those who had met him, it soon became clear
That his motives were pure and his actions sincere.

They followed and asked him why he was not scared
And from where he was getting the things that he shared
'It’s simple,' he said, 'needs no thinking about,
'I just took my bag and turned it inside out.'

Peter Hughes

“Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”

Matthew 6:33