Stringing Pearls for The Delight of Heaven

We could rake the muck forever, but what about stringing pearls? What will bring the delight of heaven to full song?

I recently watched someone restringing a necklace of pearls.

With mindful precision, a fine silk cord was taken and inserted through the pearls with a small needle.

A pearl was chosen, and the cord passed through. A knot secured the pearl, and the process was repeated.

Another knot to secure and to create a space between the pearls. A space created to avoid abrasion.

A knot to hold in place, but also to prevent all the pearls sliding off if the cord was cut or broken.

It was beautiful to watch. In fact, it was a delight to watch someone have such focused attention on a very delicate but precious craft.

There was also something very tangible and tactile to the stringing of the pearls.

In this world of digital, we need the physicality of touch.

Stringing pearls for the delight of heaven.

There’s a beauty when you ‘join the dot’s’ or in this case ‘join the pearls’

Connections are made and beauty is amplified by the pearls alongside.

Wisdom pearl next to wisdom pearl.

There is a wonderful little piece of teaching from Hasidic Judaism

Rack the muck this way. Rack the muck that way.
It will still be muck.
In the time you are brooding, you could be on your way, stringing pearls for the delight of heaven. (Hasidic teaching)

Philosopher Martin Buber adds to this.

You can rake the muck this way, rake the muck that way – it will always be muck.
Have I sinned or have I not sinned?
In the time I am brooding over it, I could be stringing pearls for the delight of Heaven. Martin Buber

To string pearls is to join portions of scripture together.

Here is an example.

And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’ Matthew 3:16-17

In the last portion of this passage, there is a string of pearls. Pearls from other portions of scripture joined together.

‘This is my Son (Psalm 2:7), the Beloved (Genesis 22:2), with whom I am well pleased (Isaiah 42:1).’

One pearl stringed to another pearl to another pearl.

Personally, I want to spend more time growing the pearls, stringing them together, and sharing their beauty with others.

Why would I want to rake muck?

Your pearls, your necklace.

If you were to look at the pearls of wisdom you have found through your life what would they be?

Could you identify the little gems that seem to guide you when the tough times come?

Pearls you would like to pass on to the next generation?

‘My mother used to say ….’
‘My father always told me …’

I have a few of them myself.

Pearls that have grown from times a parasite has entered my soul, wanting to suck the life out of me. But under a mantle of wisdom, the parasite has been suffocated and turned into a pearl.

Here are a few.

Where I focus I will go. Focus on the negatives/ challenges will always take me down. Focus on the positives/ good things will always give me hope.
I am loved.
I am held
I am known

There are many others.

Others I have strung together, and I have made into a necklace.

They have made up my Thinking Compass

Stringing pearls

I’m looking for pearls
Scouring the land
finding the beauty hidden
Examining it in my hand

It’s cost me everything
The pearl of great price
Others think I’m foolish
But they have not the pearl merchants’ eyes

I take this precious pearl
This wisdom beauty formed
Drill the finest hole
Through the centre of its core

There is another pearl
I found within my soul
Another formation of struggle
Provision for me to show

I find a silken thread
Strong and created made
Thread it through the holes Ive drilled
Knots on either side

Every pearl has a glory
There is a wisdom’s worth
Every pearl has a story
Of how it came to birth

Each pearl becomes
A prayer bead on a thread
I recite the wisdom found
They keep me in good stead

I focus my eyes on the gift
Beauty out of struggle made
I only show them to a few safe others
Those who will honour Gods beauty made

Not to pigs or to dogs
Not to those who delight to rake the muck
They won’t value the wisdom God has made
Out of all the yuck

I string a pearl
Angels sing a workman’s song
Choirs break out in celebration
All for the delight of heaven

Barry Pearman

Questions?

Comments?

Email me 🙂📨 barry@turningthepage.co.nz

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Quotes to consider

There are two things that draw us outside of ourselves: pain on other people’s faces; and the unbelievable beauty that is other human beings at their best. Or in other words: cross and resurrection. Richard Rohr -Job and the Mystery of Suffering
The calling of every true artist is to envision true beauty and then creatively represent it. Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. It is objective. It exists in the character and relationships of God. I’m called, and so are you, to get a feel for what that beauty looks like as we hear resurrection and story truth and then follow God’s signposts to reflect His beauty in our character and relationships. Larry Crabb
No great wisdom can be reached without sacrifice. C.S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew
Wisdom is accessed through spiritual practices that have become woven into the fabric of daily life. Contemplative practice have a particularly important role in this process. David Benner
Wisdom flows from seeing the world through eyes that recognize the sacred interdependence of everything in existence. David Benner
One of the keys to wisdom is that we must recognize our own biases, our own addictive preoccupations, and those things to which, for some reason, we refuse to pay attention. Richard Rohr.

Questions to answer

The physical act of stringing pearls has a tangible, tactile quality to it. What tactile, tangible activities help you be present?
What would be some ‘pearls of wisdom’ that you have gathered along the way?
What is easier? Raking the muck of your life and others, or stringing the pearls of your life and others? Why?

Why this matters For Mental Health

This is a question about focus. Where are you focusing your attention? On the muck or the wisdom gained? Are you building practices into your daily life of rehearsing the pearls and growing them?

Formation exercise

On some post-it notes (or something similar), write with a pen some pearls of wisdom that you have gathered together. One piece of paper per pearl. Create a ‘string’ of them. Join them together one after the other. How does one inform the next? What does the ‘string of pearls’ overall say to you?