Do Not Throw Your Pearls to Swine

A single word, Pearl, has come to mean many things to me.

Pearl:
1. the type of earrings that I have worn ever since my year in China and can't seem to get away from even if they aren't necessarily the latest trend
2. the face treatment I most recently had done-enough said there
3. the street I pass every morning to work, triggering my mind to begin analyzing my life direction and the day ahead
4. a word used to teach my students that 'ear' sometimes says /er/
5. Jesus' words and Spirit in my life

Another's definition:
someone or something unusually desirable.

Jesus specifically tells us, "Do not give to dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs." And then He says if we do, "they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces."

But as I consider the warning spoken from our Lord, and then consider the daily walk we all tread on this earth, I ask myself, "Who or what are the dogs and swine around us, and where do we fall in the mix of this"?

The world feels like a vacuum at times- sucking me in so seductively that I don't even know it is happening. The lies of beauty, status, security, and then the ever so natural tendencies to doubt, worry, and fear pervade my life. All these things I know I should protect myself from, (and even convince myself I have). But they creep in and before I know it, I appear to be the pig, tramping under my feet the Lord's goodness, beauty, mercy, and authority in my life.

How is it in one moment I can move from the one tramping on the One whom is most desirable, most worthy of all our praise, to the one being warned not to throw my pearls to pigs so as not to get torn to pieces?

A simple answer: the gospel. A complex and amazing reality.

Oh, to see myself as the pig...and then see myself as the one held and pursued by the King.
I deserve to eat out of the trough...but instead get to feast at the banquet table.

So as cheesy as this analogy might be, my pearls I wear from China remind me that really I am a beautiful and pure daughter of the King; the pearls that I carry around aren't my own-I don't deserve them, and yet, I get to wear them.

Amazing Grace
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.