Necklace

(traditional story retold)

“There was a young girl who was not much older than 5 years-old grocery shopping with her mother. The mother was asking the daughter to be patient with her as she made her way through the aisles of fruit and nuts, then cans and bottles and on and on and on. The girl was trying very hard to be quiet and wait until they were done but as all little girls are she was becoming restless. Her eyes began to scan the aisles more intently as she sought entertainment to keep her mind off of the mindless activity of her mother’s shopping. In most grocery stores there is a small section of an aisle, sometimes it’s only one rack, but this section has toys. Cheap, flashy, trinkets. It is no surprise that this little girl was captured beyond return when her mother mindlessly passed this section. The girl’s gaze was fixed on a specific trinket right in the middle. A string of plastic pearls plastered with wire ties to a piece of pink cardboard. The little girl stopped without recognizing her mother. She immediately picked the cardboard off of the hook and ran to her mother who had made her way a couple steps down the aisle. “Mommy! Look!” the girl raised her new reality above her head.
“Those are pretty” her mother responded to satisfy her.
“Can I get them?” the girl’s entire day would hinge on her mother’s answer.
“I will buy them for you and then when we get home you can go into your piggy bank and pay me back for them if you want to spend your money this way.” The girl’s mother was trying to teach her daughter about spending money wisely.
“I’ll pay you back, I promise!” She was so excited she clutched that cardboard the rest of the way around the aisles and grabbed them right away when they came down the conveyer belt at the checkout line.
When the two got home, the girl went right away to her piggy bank and her mother helped her count out the correct change for the pearls.
That night when her father came home from work the girl was waiting for him at the door. “Daddy look!” and she held them up as high as she could without taking them off her neck.
Her dad knelt down and examined them and said, “Honey, you look very pretty with those on.”
“Thank you, I bought them with my own money!”
The father grabbed his little girl and gave her a big hug and kiss and set her back down as she ran back to her room to continue playing.
The girl took her pearls everywhere, to kindergarten, to church, to grandma and grandpa’s house, and her mother had to force them off of her so she could take a bath.
A few nights later when the girl was getting ready for bed, her father came in as he did every night to tuck her in and pray with her. The father sat down on the bed next to his little girl who was still proudly wearing her pearls. He looked at her and said, “Sweetie, you know I love you right?”
The girl smiled and said “Yes daddy, I love you too.”
The father brushed her cheek with his hands and said, “And you know that I want what’s best for you?”
She again responded, “Yes daddy”
Then the father’s smile faded as he asked “Honey” he became serious, “can I have your pearls?”
The girl stopped smiling as well and she reached for her pearls around her neck, “Why daddy?” she asked.
He said “I can’t tell you why, but I want them anyway.”
She said “No, I bought these with my own money.”
The father said “ok” and kissed her on the cheek, tucked her in and turned out her light.
Every few days the father would come in the girl’s room and ask her for her pearls and every night the little girl would be more and more confident in her answer, “No daddy, I bought these with my own money.”
One night when the father came in he noticed his little girl wasn’t in bed. Instead she was sitting on the floor crying.
He walked in and picked her up in his arms, she wasn’t wearing her pearls. He said, “Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
Through her tears, in a squeaky, crying voice all she said was, “Daddy, I love you.” And she opened up her hands to reveal her pearls, in perfect condition.
The father took them from her and put them in his shirt pocket. He set her down in bed and tucked her in. He said “I love you too, thank you.” He kissed her on the cheek and turned out the light and left the room.
The girl was sad the next day when she realized that her pearls were really gone. People asked about them at school since she always wore them. They didn’t understand when she told them why she didn’t have them anymore.
The girl began to understand that her pearls were really gone.
Later when her father came to tuck her in bed, he said “Sweetie, when you gave me your pearls did you ever think I was going to give them back to you?”
“No” she said.
The father then reached into the same pocket where she last saw her pearls and pulled out a long velvet box. He held it out and opened it in front of her to reveal a string of genuine pearls. The girl kept those pearls to this day, wore them in her wedding day and keeps them close to her heart as a reminder of the time she trusted her father.

Do you trust your Father?
What are you holding on to that He is asking you for?

You know, Jesus never really told people what would happen when He asked them to follow Him, did He?
God never told Abraham where He was going when He asked him to move his whole family, did He?
God isn’t telling you why He wants that thing does He?

It could be because it is getting in the way of your relationship with Him.
It could be because it isn’t time for you to have it yet.
It could even be because God has something so much better than your plastic pearls, sitting there around your neck like a cheap trinket that you are so proud of.

I can’t tell you that when you give Him your thing that He is immediately going to reward you with an amazing replacement. He just wants you to
trust…Him. You see because it is in the trusting that we receive the reward.

In Proverbs, a man named Solomon who people say was the wisest person who ever lived wrote and said, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him [God] and He [God] will direct your paths.”
God is asking you to trust Him.
You might not know why.
That’s ok, remember he says “Don’t rely on your own understanding”.
But God is in control.

May you tell your Father tonight, “Daddy, I love you” and open your hands up give Him your pearls.
May you begin to trust Him as the little girl trusted her daddy, and may you experience the amazing reward that He has in his pocket; waiting to give it to you if you’ll only
trust…
Him