Christmas Pearls

Life Beautiful by Margaret McSweeney

During a quiet moment after Thanksgiving, I started reading my parents' stack of love letters that I recently found in a storage box. As a Christmas gift to you, I would like to share my father's words to my mother written to her during Christmas 1949. This incredible "hug from heaven" has been a tangible affirmation that Pearl Girls has true meaning and great worth for women throughout the world. I pray that God will continue to bless this ministry and outreach. May we all realize that the grit in our lives can be transformed into grace through the love of God.

This is what I found written on a tiny folded card inscribed with "Christmas Greetings" on the front: Christmas 1949

My Dearest Carolyn,
Truly a jewel is a thing of beauty, but a life that is lived to serve others and to glorify our Christ, such as yours, is my dearest, a far surpassing gem in radiance and beauty. Pearls to me, symbolize this "Life Beautiful" that you have achieved, Carolyn. Each pearl is a result of a great hurt to the oyster's life. But the little mollusk builds an iridescent coat around this source of hurt, and as a result, the precious pearl comes into being. Life is like that too. If we, like the pearl, can make of our hurts the basis of a thing of beauty, then we can bear witness to an on-looking world how Christians can overcome through Christ, blows that are seemingly insurmountable. At this happiest season of the year, I give thanks to God for you, Carolyn - my Pearl of Great Price. Your Claude

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The death of Twin A has definitely been my "pearl" this year. Although I do not own any tangible pearls, the pearls that I do have are, like the oyster described above, a result of pain and hurt. I do hope that as I grieved and mourned my precious child, others looked on at the many, many ways Jesus was comforting me in my time of need. Without Christmas, there would be no Jesus, and without Jesus, there would be no point to living. Thank you, Jesus, for pearls.

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