Standing in line at the post office, my eye caught sight of an elderly woman.  Her long, straight gray hair tied back neatly in a ponytail, exposing beautiful pearl earrings.  You don’t see many women wearing pearls these days and certainly not pearls that were so rich in color and iridescence.

Whether her pearls were natural or cultured by man’s intervention, what is interesting is that all pearls are a product of an irritation.

When an irritant enters the shell of an oyster, the soft tissue of the oyster releases layer after layer of a material called “nacre,” surrounding the irritant and in the process producing a beautiful, iridescent pearl.

From an irritant comes something of great beauty and value.  Himm!

Sometimes we wonder why God allows irritants to enter our lives.  We want God to remove them, right?  But perhaps God wants us to make a pearl!

He wants us to release some spiritual “nacre” – acts of loving kindness around that irritant, layer after layer after layer.   Got an “irritant” in your life?  It’s an opportunity to create a pearl!