‘The Pearl of great price’
I still can’t believe I found it. Thinking back over what happened I’m amazed at the seemingly unexplainable. It all began when I noticed one of my students seemed to be very quiet and withdrawn. She was slumped in her chair and was typing distractedly on her computer. “Are you OK, Grace?” I inquired. “Not really, Sir, I’ve lost my pearl ear ring with a gold stud. It was given to me by my mother last Christmas and she told me not to take it to school today – now I’ve gone and lost it.” I said, “Look, what about when all the other students go out for lunch, we pray together that we will find it. She didn’t seem too convinced about my idea but agreed with a slight nod of her head.
Soon, the lunch siren rang and the class eagerly left their school work behind. When the last student left and silence returned to the room I invited Grace to pray to St. Anthony that we would find the pearl ear ring. “Who’s St. Anthony?” she asked with a puzzled look on her face. I realized that Grace was not a Catholic so I briefly explained that he was the Patron Saint people prayed to when they lost things. “OK”, she replied and proceeded to pray silently in hope. As for myself, I could see that the ear ring meant a lot to her, so I prayed earnestly that we would find it. I noticed when she finished her prayer she blessed herself backwards but I felt sure that St. Anthony would overlook this minor detail.
As we set off together I sensed a confidence come over me as familiar Bible references began filtering through my brain. ‘Seek and you will find’, ‘Knock and the door will be open to you’. Grace led me across to the main lawn area of the school which was quite large and well traversed and she explained that three teachers had spent quite some time looking for the ear ring earlier in the day. I thought with such an object only a few millimetres in diameter, it must surely be tramped into the soil by now.
Grace directed me to the centre of the lawn and said, “It’s somewhere out here!”. I put my glasses on, bent down and began my search. As I focused in front of my feet I gasped in astonishment – there it was! I picked up the tiny pearl with the gold stud and said to Grace. “Would this be it?” Her eyes lit up and a big smile immediately beamed across her face. She eagerly reached our for the pearl and relied, “Yes – that’s it. I said, “Grace, if you don’t pray, you should start today”.
I went away thinking about how I’d found it immediately and how we don’t put enough faith in God. We tend to rely on science for answers and our own resources for comfort but there really is something beyond our humanity which is unexplainable.
On reaching the office building of the school I eagerly shared my story with a teaching colleague and when I reached the end of my amazing saga he replied. “Yeah – you can’t beat a second pair of eyes.” I turned and walked away deflated; he’d missed the whole point.