Pearls

A couple of weeks ago, one of our chapel speakers told a story that touched my heart. I'm going to do my best to recount it to you; forgive me if I butcher it :) 

A little girl and her father went to Wal-Mart, getting a few of the groceries (and maybe some extra candy) they needed at the house.  When leaving, the little girl saw the machine with a cheap set of pearls for 50 cents, but she was dying to have them on her neck. She begged and pleaded for her daddy to give her the pearls, and, being the strong and unwavering father that he is, he bought them for her.  As expected, she wore out those pearls - to school, to church, even to bed!  

 Finally, after about a week, her father asked her to give him the pearls.  With tears in her eyes, wondering why her father would ask such a thing, she responded with a curt "no."  He continued to ask her this for days with rejection as his answer until she finally, without understanding, gave her father the pearls, saying "Daddy, I love my pearls... but I love you more."  As soon as she let go of the cheap pearls she had been holding onto, her father put a beautiful string of real pearls around her neck and said, "All I wanted was to give you something better than what you thought was best."

The speaker, of course, compared this to us, human beings, holding onto the cheap stuff that this world provides when God asks us to surrender so that we can have all that HE has in store for us. At first, I started thinking... "So...if I surrender my fear of the future to God, He will bless me with assurance." or "If I surrender my desire to be married, He will give me a boyfriend."

That's not it.

God doesn't replace the old cheap stuff with NEW CHEAP STUFF... What am I thinking?!?! 

God replaces everything we surrender with more of Him.

The real pearls represent JESUS.

Proverbs 3:5-6 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In ALL your ways acknowledge Him, and HE will direct your path.