A Gift of Pearl

O that Pearl of great price! have you found it?

Is the Savior supreme in your love?

O consider it well, ere you answer,

As you hope for a welcome above.

Have you given up all for this Treasure?

Have you counted past gains as but loss?

Has your trust in yourself and your merits

Come to naught before Christ and His cross?

Every once in a while, I feel like God leaves me a breadcrumb on my path, a sort of encouragement that I'm on the right track, even when I can't see him.  This week, the word "struggle" remained on my mind from my previous blog post.  Yesterday, I was struck with a sudden curiosity as to what my name- Megan- meant.  The answer was pretty simple: Megan means pearl.

Pearls, as we all know, come from oysters.  Oysters get an irritating little bit of sand in them, and as a way of dealing with the irritation, coat the sand in layer after layer of nacre. Eventually, enough nacre is coated on the sand that a pearl is formed.

A pearl is a treasure born of struggle.

Futhermore, oysters in their natural environment have to take the materials to make nacre out of the water and environment around it.  This is a long, slow process.  It can take up to 20 years for a pearl to form in nature.  20 years of struggle and irritation to create the beautiful miracle that is a pearl.

My name is Megan.  Megan means pearl.  And you can't be a pearl without struggle.  So maybe, with my struggle, there's a hope of a treasure at the end...