The Pearl is a children's book by Helme Heine. And it goes like this:
So this beaver is swimming one day in the river and finds this shell. He smells it and holds it and looks at it, and he is sure that it is a a freshwater pearl mussel- he had found a treasure! He had no doubt that there was a big shiny pearl inside. "Beaver hugged the mussel to his heart, closed his eyes and began to dream..."
He dreams that his friends all look at him in astonishment, filled with envy.
They want a pearl of their own, so they begin looking in the water near the shore. A lot of his friends couldn't swim and they tore down his dam so all the water ran out. They begin fighting over every mussel. They became angry and threw mud at one another, and at night they lit a fire so they could protect their mussels from owls and bats.
Well a big wind blew and the forest caught fire. It burned and burned and there was no water in the lake to douse it out. And the flames consumed everyone and everything- including beaver and the pearl.
Yikes, right!
I certainly know what it feels like, clutching onto that shell. I roll it through my enslaved fingers and marvel at it's shimmering splendor. Like Bilbo Baggins with his ring...doesn't it change you?
I hope you don't know this feeling, but I'm afraid we all do. What idol factories our wicked hearts are!
Aren't we so confused to think that these things give us freedom? What bondage!
Isn't it the very idols we create that enslave us?
"...Beaver awoke terrified from his horrible dream. While he thought about it he looked at the mussel he had not yet opened. Picking it up, he hurled the mussel as far as he could into the lake."
May God, in His power and His mercy, free us from our bondage and give us the strength and determination to cast away our pearls. Pin It
