A Pearl Of Great Value
Yes, it’s true, I’m a cruciverbalist. And, no, it’s nothing I can be arrested for! I am, in fact, a lover of crossword puzzles. I remember laughing at my Dad for doing them, calling it an old-person past time. Alas, I have now entered the geriatric realm, and hence my affection for these often-tricky challenges. Must be in the DNA. Anyway, he used to say that certain words show up regularly. One such example is “nacre” or mother-of-pearl the hard pearly iridescent substance forming the inner layer of a mollusk shell. I tucked it away for another day’s puzzle, or for use on a final Jeopardy. It didn’t find it’s way into many daily conversations, but it was a unique noun. Not too long ago, I was privileged to hear it used in a sermon. The same elation I feel when I, alone, have the correct answer on Final Jeopardy struck me. He’s going to talk about nacre, I told the lady sitting next to me. She gave me the look, but I didn’t mind, I knew I was right. Returning to earth, I wondered how this rather obscure term was going to fit into a Bible lesson. Well, let me tell you, it was a gem (pun intended). He directed us to the book of Revelation. In this chapter, God is describing to the Apostle John, who is exiled on the isle of Patmos, what the New Jerusalem/Heaven was going to look like. The full account of which I will share another day. Today, let’s concentrate on the gates in this 1500-mile x 1500 mile cube. “The twelve gates were made of pearls—each gate from a single pearl!” Rev.21:21 Okay, so what, everyone has heard about the Pearly Gates. St. Peter, with keys in hand, hangs out there. When the new arrivals appear he either opens those gates, or hands them a hand basket, for their trip to H-E-double hockey sticks. Erase that picture. These weren’t your garden-variety gates, oh no! They are nothing like the ones we’ve seen. Try to visualize a single pearl 430 feet tall and 190 feet wide. No WD 40 needed to oil the hinges on those babies. The entrance was a tunnel through the middle. Now that you have a general idea of size, let’s see what part nacre plays in this scripture. Pearls, unlike other jewels, which are mined, are made by marine oysters and freshwater mussels as a natural defense against an irritant such as a parasite entering their shell or damage to their fragile body. God designed the oyster to slowly secret layers of aragonite and conchiolin, materials that also make up its shell. This creates a material called nacre, also known as mother-of-pearl, which encases the irritant and protects the mollusk from it. Nacre can form naturally around almost any irritant or wound inside the shell. Stay with me as I paint this picture for you. We have to travel back to the book of Isaiah 53:5, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: “ Jesus was wounded for our sins, everyone’s since time began, until it ceases. He could have let them fester, or sought revenge, we deserved it, but he didn’t. Instead, God coated each one with His divine nacre! Is it making sense now? Jesus took our sins and made them into something sublime. The entrance to our eternal home is composed of nacre-covered wounds. Wounds we inflicted on his sinless body. “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Rom. 5:8. The mental image that I received, brought me to my knees in tears. Grace, the gift that none of us can earn, is freely available to all who truly believe. God holds the entrance pass, but only our faith in Christ and his blood sacrifice claims it for us. Sadly, many of them are tucked inside those hell-bound handbaskets. Today, take time to meditate on this picture. Read Revelation 21. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide and fortify you. Let him remove any doubts or misconceptions. Remember, salvation is free, but it cost God everything.
