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At nineteen I received my first string from a dear friend as a birthday present. "Freshwater pearls," he explained. "That’s why they’re not all the same size and shape."
To me, they were perfect. I fastened the clasp, then twirled for effect.
“Beautiful,” he smiled. “Never take them off—they need contact with skin to keep their inner glow.”
Pearls of Wisdom. No doubt about it, there is something timeless and captivating about pearls. Jeanne Kun points this out in her discussion of the “pearl of great price” (Matthew 13:45-46), one of the seven parables explored in her Bible study guide, Treasures Uncovered. In the ancient world, she says, pearls were highly prized—more expensive even than gold. The oldest known pearl jewelry was buried with a Persian princess in 520 b.c.
But pearls have long represented priceless treasure as well, the wisdom that comes with experience. In Matthew’s parable, of course, the pearl represents wisdom without compare: “the secrets of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 13:11).
I knew…
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