Mickey and the Pearl

I read a devotional last week about life's irritations. They seem to aggravate us, but we should get used to them and accept them as part of living...for everyone has them, and they occur frequently.

The devotional talked about a piece of sand piercing through an oyster shell, causing irritation to the oyster. The oyster calls upon all of its resources to come and surround that sand with healing balm, and soon a pearl is formed. That's how we should look upon our irritations...make pearls out of them.

The other night hubby was irritated because he had forgotten something at the office. He remembered it at supper time, and just didn't want to make a trip back out in the cold snow and ice. However, about an hour later he knew he needed to go get the equipment.

When he pulled up to the office in his vehicle, there was a little three pound miniature poodle huddled up by the door, literally freezing to death. When Mickey, the poodle, saw someone coming, he hobbled down the steps on three legs (one was rendered useless in the cold). He could hardly walk because he was shivering so badly. Hubby picked him up and put him inside his coat to warm him up.

After retrieving his equipment, he took Mickey back home to his owners, several blocks away. When they answered their door bell they were shocked to see Mickey peeking out from hubby's coat. They had put him out and had forgotten about him, and the dog can't bark. They were very relieved to see Mickey, but not as relieved as Mickey was to be rescued from the cold and sure death.

Hubby said that it was the hand of God that made it necessary for him to make that trip back out to the office. If he had not gone, we would have found a dead dog on the office porch the next morning. The irritation became a pearl that saved Mickey.

We just never know how our irritations in life might be benefiting somebody else. With that in mind, perhaps we should take a different view on how we look at and handle those things that tend to aggravate us. God may very well have a purpose in them!