The Pearl of Great Price

May 17, 2024

“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” ~ Matthew 13:45-46 NIV

Izzy and Jackson continue to teach me new lessons. This week’s lesson is that, to them ,the pearl of great price is the squeaker inside the toy Manta Ray. Within any hour of receiving the stuffed manta ray from our younger granddaughters, Izzy, with surgical precision, extracted the tubular blue squeaker from the Manta Ray, along with the fluffy white stuffing.

I put the squeaker in our garage to avoid the annoying squeaks. But last night, I decided I’d give it to the pups to play with before bedtime. You’d have thought I threw out the last piece of filet mignon. They dove for it and fought for it until Jackson won. Izzy waited her chance, and when Jackson wasn’t looking, she swept in and carried it to a chair she likes to sit on and squeaked away.

Eventually, she inadvertently pushed it off the chair. She and Jackson went for it with frightening vengeance, snarling, barking, and biting each other’s necks. Rod said “drop it” with firmness, and they dropped it long enough for him to pick it up and put it on top of the refrigerator.

Our younger granddaughters did a similar thing with one of Kiko’s toys, a plastic piece of broccoli that squeaked. They desperately wanted to hold the broccoli and squeak it to get Kiko’s attention. While there was no snarling or biting, their angry words and tattling to the grandparents was solved only by putting in on top of the refrigerator.

Somehow, in a way that only puppies and grandchildren intuitively know, some things are worth almost any price, even the goodwill of your sibling.

What is your pearl of great price? Jesus, in Matthew 13:44, reminds us that the most valuable thing isn’t a material thing. The most valuable thing is the kingdom of heaven, the community of people who follow Jesus, which is already present and not yet complete. ~ Anne