Think about the oyster. It takes a grain of sand and turns it into a beautiful pearl. Too often we are just the opposite. We take pearls and turn them into grains of sand. Or at least we see them that way.

God said to Paul, "My strength is made perfect in your weakness."  We are all as grains of sand from which God gradually and beautifully shapes us into pearls of white. Yet each pearl is formed in its own unique way, with its own flaws, its own ridges, its own character. As Christians, we must learn to see every person as a potential pearl. Some take longer than others to form; but just as a chicken never returns to the shape of an egg, once formed, one of God's pearls never returns to sand.