Press the arrow to listen to the Morriston Welsh Choir of Swansea, Wales sing “I Hear Thy Welcome Voice” as you read today’s devotion about Wales and other precious things.

Scripture
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

Observation
In just one sentence an unspeakable story is told.

Enter a merchant. He is like a diamond merchant from Amsterdam in a blue pin stripped suit, fingering through trays of precious stones. His eye can appraise in nanoseconds.

In the tray of precious things, he finds one that takes his breath away. He staggers not at the price but at the beauty and perfection. In all of his shopping trips he has never seen a stone like this.

He returns home, empties his accounts, cashes in his life insurance and his 401k to scrape together the funds to purchase that one stone. He leaves all his money behind and leaves with greater delight at the stone he has purchased.

Who is the merchant? What is the stone? Why such joy?

The merchant is God. He is the owner of great wealth searching for precious things.

The stone is us, not you or me, but all of us together as the church. Of course, when he finds us, we don’t look like the church, we look like the world. But he knows diamonds in the rough and sees in us what we cannot see in ourselves.

The price paid is how God bankrupted heaven just to purchase a wife for his son.

Application
The point of this story is not to tell how valuable we are, but rather how we are to value others. If God can see past our limitations to see potential and then is willing to sacrifice all to develop it, then we should have eyes to see what others do not and to give what others will not give to reveal it. The Father calls us to sacrifice everything for the treasure of Christ at work in human lives.

Prayer
Father, today I’m going to Blaenau Ffestiniog in Gwynedd, Wales. The story is amazing of how we all came to go to this little Welch village. But I ask that I would have eyes to see the pearl in this place and would be willing to sacrifice for it. Amen.