Oysters and Stuff

Last week I was thinking some more about Pearl the cow.  About how she got sick with milk fever and could have died but she didn't.  A few days before Pearl went down with her metabolic imbalance, Serendipity did the same thing.  And though we treated her several times, she couldn't overcome and we lost her.  I looked up the definition of serendipity again the other day, and when I meditated on it I got a strong sense that there was a prophetic message in the outcomes of these two cows' lives.
Serendipity means "the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way."  Hey, if things turn out happy and beneficial for you by chance, good for you.  But life is hard sometimes, isn't it?  Regardless of the faith lenses through which you view the world, and whether or not you believe we are living in the last days preceding the return of Jesus Christ, you can't deny that life is hard (and getting harder) for a lot of people.  Sometimes these difficulties come as a result of our own brokenness and bad choices, and sometimes they seem to be completely beyond our control.  Yet maybe the source is not quite as important as what we do with the difficulties.  We can let them make us bitter or better, right?
Most people have heard how pearls are formed.  The grain of sand (or other foreign particle) somehow gets inside the oyster, irritating the flesh inside the shell.  The oyster reacts to the irritant by covering it with layer upon layer of calcium carbonate, and it becomes a thing of beauty inside the oyster.  The sand is still there.  It doesn't so much define the oyster, and it's not exactly an intrinsic part of the shellfish.  But the oyster that has redeemed the unwanted sand is the one sought after for the beauty it carries within.  Wikipedia writes that the word pearl has become a metaphor for something very rare, fine, admirable, and valuable.  Why do only some oysters end up with pearls inside them?  Are some just really good at keeping out the sand?  Do they spit it back out?  Do they carry on as if nothing is doing damage to their inward parts?  I don't know.  But if we take this very natural realm scenario and compare the spiritual realities represented we might wonder the same thing about ourselves.  Everyone has difficulties and irritations come into their lives.  Why do some people end up with something of value on the inside while others are simply torn apart?
Perhaps a quote by Charles Swindoll explains this to some degree: “We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”
Well, as I thought about Pearl and Serendipity, I sensed God was saying that this idea of our lives unfolding happily by chance must die.  There isn't much of eternal value in that.  What will endure is the pearl.  Does God cause every painful thing that comes into our lives?  I don't believe so at all!  But will He redeem all those painful things into beauty that lasts?  Absolutely.  Reminds me of Jesus' parable in Matthew 7 about the house built on the sand and the house built on the rock.  BOTH houses went through the storm.  One fell and one stood.  Serendipity and Pearl both had milk fever.  One fell and one stood.  So in the scope of our lives, if the storm is 10%, will we fall or stand with our 90%?  We can't afford to rely on a serendipitous outcome.  King Jesus is looking for pearls...
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it." Matthew 13:45-46