This may not be the case for you...but God seems to like to talk to me at early morning hours, when I want to be sleeping! I tend to shut him out at those hours, trying to get some sleep...but maybe I should start listening more. I learn a lot when I do! I was thinking about purity tonight, and the symbol that came to mind was a pearl. I decided to look up how a pearl is actually made (after I came to the realization that I didn’t actually know!) and what I found out was very interesting (and what God showed me was very interesting too!) The pearl making process first begins when a foreign substance slips into the oyster, between the mantle and the shell. This foreign substance begins to irritate the mantle, like something stuck in your tooth. Come to found out, the oysters natural reaction is to cover up the irritant to protect itself. So a pearl is a foreign substance covered with layers and layers produced by the oyster.
When I read that, this is what I thought of. So many times we let things into our lives that we shouldn’t. We know “they” shouldn’t be there, but our natural reaction is to cover it up, and hide it. We cover up, and cover up more and more until we get buried in our own mistake. We haven’t really gotten rid of the mistake, we just covered it up, just like Adam and Eve in the garden (“I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Genesis 3:10) It is a hard and depressing process, and a lot of work! BUT, that encouraging verse that we all cling to always encourages me: “You planned evil against me but God used those same plans for my good” (Genesis 50:20). If God can make a beautiful pearl out of an “irritant,” and even make a beautiful butterfly out of a caterpillar, then he can certainly make a beautiful life out of hurt, pain, or a deep struggle. Trust him, he is good :) Don’t hide from him, and he will make you beautiful inside and out.
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16
“The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” Psalm 51:17
“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11
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