DEEP down below the surface of the sea the pearl divers perform their difficult toil. Exposed to many dangers, and often risking their lives, they gather the oysters, in some of which the precious pearls are found, and bring them to the surface.
Some divers descend without the diver’s dress, and these cannot remain below much more than a minute or so; others put on their air-tight diving suits and they can stay down for a much longer time. In both cases the result is most serious, and the health of pearl divers speedily becomes impaired. Many of them lose their lives by accident.
Have you thought how our Lord Jesus Christ came from heaven in order that He might find that “one pearl of great price” — the Church, His bride?
He became man, and after His blessed life of love He went down under all the waves and billows of judgment at the cross, and suffered there for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.
There was no other way in which He could save us from our lost, hopeless condition “under sin,” and so in love He gave His life that He might deliver us and have us for His own special treasure.
“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” Matt. 13:46, 46.
Well may we praise Him for His great grace in that though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, so that we through His poverty might be rich. (2 Cor. 8:9.)
Are you, dear reader, part of the treasure which He has found down here in this sea a death and judgment? If you are, may you seek to be for His pleasure and His glory now and always.
“WHO, WHEN HE HAD FOUND ONE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE, WENT AND SOLD ALL THAT HE HAD AND BOUGHT IT.” Matt. 13:46.
ML-07/17/1960