My Pearl
Matthew 13:45-46
45“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”
Megan is going to be my wife.
That sentence still sends a shiver of joy through my body, though it’s been more than a month since we got engaged. Sometimes God’s blessings on my life are so powerful I can’t begin to describe them. This is one of those times.
The name Megan is another form of Margaret, which comes from a Greek word (the same word used in the verse above), which means pearl. I found this interesting tidbit on a website sometime after I met Megan, but the real meaning of all this didn’t come clear to me until much later, even years.
The story of how Meg and I met is one worth re-telling, and even that is a blessing of God. Meg and I both are the type of people some might call “dramatic,” or “theatrical,” even. So, a good story is one of our most favorite things.
I was home schooled from kindergarten on through high school. Megan went to a private school. However, we had some friends in common, since I went to a church where a bunch of the people from her school also attended. I’d never been able to go to any kind of high school prom, or dance, or anything, being home schooled and all. It didn’t really bother me that I hadn’t, though, because I’m not exactly a socialite. In fact, you’d probably call me introverted. So, it came as a bit of a surprise that I agreed to go when one of our mutual friends, Claire, asked if I’d like to go to their Junior/Senior banquet with Megan.
I had never met Megan before this. All Claire could tell me is that she had played Luann in the play I’d been to at their school the week before. Picture this: a totally introverted, nerdy guy (me) agreeing to, first of all, even just go to a banquet/dance thing… Much less that I would agree to go with someone I had never even met, only seen wearing a wig on stage. God was already moving heaven and earth.
As it turned out, we ended up meeting at Barnes and Noble before the actual event, so it wouldn’t be a totally awkward thing. We sat in the coffee shop and ended up doing a mad-lib or two from one of the store’s books. (Don’t worry, we didn’t write in it. We used a napkin.) I thought she was weird, and she thought I was a jerk. She kept laughing uncontrollably at the mad-lib when I thought it was stupid. And for some reason, I had never had as many calls on my cell phone as I did that night. Even though that night was maybe a bit of a bomb, we still decided to go ahead and go together to Junior/Senior.
The banquet was a vast improvement over Barnes and Noble. I don’t think our conversation really lagged the whole night, which was rare for me, being the social misfit I was. We made it through the whole night, and at the end, both agreed we had fun.
And that’s probably where it would’ve ended. We became good friends, but the element of romance evaded the relationship. God was working on both of us, though. I hadn’t learned to submit my search for The One totally to Him yet, and so I kept looking from girl to girl, crush to infatuation. Megan and I grew as friends, and I looked to her for advice and pretty much someone to listen to all my girl problems. This was obviously a pretty jerky thing to do to her, especially when I kept it up even after she told me she had feelings for me.
We both were growing up. In college, we would talk online constantly every night, and used to talk on the phone for hours every Saturday when she had free minutes on her cell phone. But I was still distracted by every other pretty face that happened to walk by. God continued to work on me, and eventually I began to see what it meant to really submit this relationship stuff to Him. Megan was dealing with stuff of her own, mostly having to do with me, even though I didn’t know it.
What neither of us saw was how God was weaving a masterpiece, writing a piece of music with our lives that would rise and fall in perfect rhythm.
About mid-Fall a couple years ago, I finally began to see the light. I was falling in love with Megan. Even while God was allowing her to finally give up on me, and lean totally on Him. Of course I didn’t know that… I just knew I was beginning to see her in a completely different light than I’d ever known before. After a lot of questioning, wondering, and prayer, I finally told her. I’d told her once earlier, but I hadn’t been nearly as sure then. She’d said that when I did make up my mind, it’d better be the real thing, or else it would kill her. She said she couldn’t let me back into her heart again unless it was to stay. So, I made sure. I prayed; I waited. And then I felt peace, so I asked her to be my girlfriend.
We started dating late in 2002. God was still working, and as we grew closer together, He began to show us all kinds of things about life, relationships, and Him that we never could’ve imagined as singles. There were rough places, and there were wonderful times. He worked to help us mature, and sometime in mid-2004 I knew. Again, I had to be sure, but it wasn’t that hard. I prayed, and waited, and felt peace about it. I knew I was going to ask Megan Michelle Garland to marry me, I just didn’t know when.
Then on December 27th, 2004, I did it. I popped the question. I got down on one knee. And it was amazing. God worked everything out! Now we’re getting married, and I am the happiest, luckiest, most blessed man alive.
So where does the pearl part come in? Well, to be honest, it’s one of those things that I don’t even know all the ways it could apply… But here’s what I see now: I was the merchant searching for fine pearls. I looked all over, but none of the ones I found satisfied me. Then I realized… Jesus is my Pearl. He is the treasure beyond price. A relationship with Him is more valuable than any other thing. So I submitted everything I had to Him. I ‘sold all I had.’ And then something amazing happened. He gave me one of His pearls. The most beautiful, wonderful, delightful, incredible… lovely pearl He has.
Megan. My pearl.