A String of Pearls

Twice during this last week I have come across the phrase, " Like a sting of pearls..." This morning as I opened up my daily reading from the book Season's of Life, the title of the story was, you guessed it, " A String of Pearls" This to me was meant for me to take notice of. So as the story goes....

Pearls are the product of pain. For some unknown reason, the shell of the oyster gets pierced and a grain of sand slips inside. On the entry of the foreign irritant, all the resoures within the tiny, sensitive oyster rush to the spot and begin to release healing fluids that otherwise would have remained dormant. By and by the the irritant is covered and the wound is healed- by a pearl! It is the symbol of stress- a healed wound... a precious , tiny jewel conceived through irritation, born of adversity, nursed by adjustments. Had there been no wounding, no irritating interruption, there could have been no pearl.

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As I examine this and try to apply it to my life it has a ring of truth to it. Every circumstance we endure is meant for a reason. The adversity we all face is put in our paths to refine and make us better than who we were yesterday. Some of us may only have a couple of pearls in our collection. But by the end of my life as I've laboured through my trials I hope that the string of pearls I wear around my neck is testimony to the life lessons I've learned.