My Pearl isn't just mine

Today, already, only slightly before 1pm, has been an emotional day. Being as it is Sunday, of course we trotted off to church as normal, a few minutes late as usual just before the hymns start to really get going. Anyway, as we start to sing the hymns one comes along that I have known my whole life, one that I haven't paid too much attention to simply because I had heard the story of Jesus.

Looking back now I see how one-dimensional my faith and fervor had been. This hymn is simply titled "Tell Me the Story of Jesus." First of all let me gather my surface thoughts and say that this hymn throughout the verses gives me the imagery of a child, wide-eyed and alert, listening to a gripping tale of wonders. Shouldn't the story of Jesus captivate us as such every time? Or even more so, the story f Jesus within our own lives?

But here is the gist of what I am really getting at...this hymn did captivate me this morning because as I was looking at a verse it was as if the words bore a hole in my brain and my heart. They were significant and alarming, they jumped out at me. Here they are:

Tell of the years of His labor,
Tell of the sorrow He bore;
He was despised and afflicted,
Homeless, rejected and poor.

As these words met my eyes it resonated in my life. My labor is to look like his, the sorrow I bear is to be with his strength, I am to love the despised, afflicted, homeless, rejected, and poor just as he loved them, and just as he was all of these things. He became despised, afflicted, homeless, rejected, and poor for us to love and accept him as our own. More and more I realized just how much I want to help and be in the lives of those who are so afflicted, so despised, those homeless, continuously rejected, and undoubtedly poor. Not for my own gratitude but so they might know and love their sweet Savior.

This hymn reminded me that I've found my pearl, and nothing else matters, my efforts should be put into helping these in this world. All that I have should be rubbish in comparison to this pearl.

May our labor be evermore, my Lord, for thee
May the sorrow we bear
Become joy that we share
With the afflicted, rejected, and poor
Growing closer to Your heart all-the-more.

All to God