In the parable of the Pearl of Great Price, found in Matthew 13:45-46, the kingdom of heaven is likened to a merchant seeking beautiful pearls. This merchant, upon finding one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had to buy it. The narrative portrays the merchant as seriously and deliberately searching the world to secure the best and costliest gems, making it the very business of his life. He travels widely with zeal and a lofty purpose, able to appreciate the best when he sees it. This parable illustrates a profound lesson about value and dedication, emphasizing the merchant's relentless pursuit and willingness to sacrifice everything for the ultimate treasure.

Jesus Christ is the merchant who went and sold all that He had to buy that pearl, which is you. Jesus Christ pictures you as the pearl of great price. The church is one pearl, one body composed of so many brought together throughout time because He is seeking us, putting us together for His Bride. It is no coincidence that Jesus Christ used a pearl in this parable. Pearls are known for their purity. A pearl is a jewel that comes complete and radiant, created by God through nature. Human hands cannot increase its beauty. A fine pearl needs no polishing or cutting by men. Pearls are the only gemstone that is made solely by living animals. Pearls are formed mainly by oysters when an irritant or a grain of sand or even the egg of a parasite invades the inside of the oyster. For the oyster to protect itself, it secretes nacre or mother of pearl. The oyster begins to layer that irritant and keeps layering it because it is in pain and protecting itself. This is a very slow process that takes anywhere from two years to four years for a pearl to be formed. Because of the particle being continually coated with the mother of pearl, it becomes a complete and new creation. It might have been a grain of sand or a parasite to begin with, but by the end of that time it becomes something that is so valuable and beautiful and highly valued. Our development is very much like the pearl. Just as the oyster coats the irritant with mother of pearl, we when we begin are an irritant in God's creation with our carnal nature and our sins. We are the foolish, the weak, the base, and the despised. That is how we started. That changes. He chose us and because He chose us we become special. It is because of God's love for us and His sacrifice that we are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ through His death, which begins a gradual and slow change in us. It takes time to become a thing of beauty to God. He is clothing us with His righteousness by which He bought us. You are a new creation just like that speck or that parasite does end up in the oyster. What you were is not what you are today. This is a process that takes a lifetime of refinement, a lifetime of honing, and of endurance for us to resist sin, purifying and perfecting our character and bringing us ever closer to Him through His righteousness. In many cultures around the world the pearl is known as something that is extremely pure. You are a treasure. You are a pearl. The day is coming when Jesus Christ will return and then our God will reveal His church for what they are: glorious, a wonderful creation of our Great God, a priceless pearl, arrayed in radiant splendor, in the purity of His righteousness.