WOYWW 311: Of Gold and Pearls and other Treasures

Here is what's on my desk this morning!

I needed an illustration of a woman with a book

and I turned her book into a Bible.

I also turned her mini skirt into a too long skirt! 

With her closed collar, I think I turned her into a nun!

Well, sort of, she doesn't have a veil.

 “I commend you now to the Lord, and to that gracious WORD of His which can enlarge you…” Saint Paul, Acts 20:32

God's gracious word can enlarge you, build you up, and give you an inheritance with all those set apart for Himself. Sometimes I rush through reading the Bible because I have read it all before several times. But when I slow down, I see gems like this verse. When I am able to savor God's Word, I see it as a treasure room full of different finely set jewels, intricate gold pieces and the finest pearls. Just like that room in National Treasure but only bigger, limitless!

Many people through the ages have sought after gold, pearls, and jewels. Some have gone down deep into the sea to salvage pirate's treasure. Kings hoarded gems, explorers bravely set out to find cities of gold, pioneers spent years prospecting the elusive metal. Legends have grown around famous pearls. One particular pearl, the La Peregrina, has an illustrious 500 year history! After being found by a slave in Africa in the 1500s, and worn by Spanish queens and English nobility, it eventually ended up in Elizabeth Taylor's extensive jewelry collection. Once, she recounts in her book, she was so scared because she lost it. It was eventually found in the mouth of one of her puppies! The most perfect pearl in the world being chewed by a puppy!!

 One day, all these worldly treasures will be worth precisely that- nothing! Years and years of prospecting something that is worth nothing! So much time, money and effort spent searching for some elusive treasure under the sea worth nothing! What do I spent my time, effort and money on? Does it have eternal value or will it be eventually worth nothing?

Jesus said we should store up for ourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. (Matthew 6:20-21) Let us dig in the vast treasure of God's Word and let it enlarge us, build us up and give us an inheritance worth far more than all the earthly treasures throughout the ages!

 "Glorify Your Son so He can give glory back to You." John 17:1

What is glory? In the world glory may mean being famous, having notable achievements,eminence, being able to break Twitter with a single photograph of your backside, etc. When Jesus said, "Glorify Your Son so He can give glory back to You", what did He mean? I doubt if we can understand this fully with our finite minds. Glory seems to be some fullness, heaviness, beauty of God's character that we cannot really define.

In Isaiah 43:7, we read this prophecy: "Every one that is called by My name: I have created him for My glory, I have formed him: yea, I have made him." Can this be our purpose, our destiny? To be God's glory?

In Paul's letter to the Corinthians, he writes: "Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." (1 Cor. 10:31) Can whatever we do, our work in the office or clinic or schoolroom, our washing the dishes and cleaning the floors, our tedious tasks every day, can they all be for the glory of God? Apparently yes. We can't add to God's glory that's for sure. He is already perfect and full and complete. But we are not. Perhaps our destiny is to be united with Him in His glory? When Jesus' work was finished on the earth, that is when He said, "Glorify Your Son..." Perhaps He was saying, "I want to be united with You once again! I yearn to be one with You." And that is exactly what He prayed in John 17:5: " And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world began."

We can't pray that prayer but perhaps we may pray, if we do all our work for God's glory, "Father, thank You for creating me, forming me, intentionally for Your glory. I yearn to be one with You, united with You, bring me home!"

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Blessings!

Patsy