"Follow me," and Matthew arose and followed him.
We often think the invitation to follow Jesus is Romantic. How the person called simply floats out of his chair and forever experiences the goodness and tenderness of God.
The call itself, we must remember, is an invitation to be recreated anew. God calls us not to keep us the same but to change us in all the right ways.
How do we encounter that call, "follow me."
Well, the best image I can think of is the image of the Oyster and the pearl. The pearl doesn't begin as a pearl but rather it begins as an irritation, a piece of sand or debris that gets stuck in the oyster.
It is such an irritation that the Oyster secretes a calcium saliva that coats the irritation. The oyster wants to get it out, yet man can't get enough. Go figure. The pearl is nothing more than the hardened spit of an oyster over a piece of sand.
It begins as an irritation and it is transformed into that which is highly sought after and highly prized.
This is the call of Jesus. When Jesus calls us he speaks in those peak moments when we are irritated. The call is an irritation that demands us to change ourselves rather than the other.
Jesus rubs us in the all the right ways.
Think about the times we are most irritated: when we have grown impatient, or angered, or frustrated perhaps at a spouse or child or parent, or stingy refusing to be charitable, mean rather than kind, no longer merciful. These moments of irritation is when Jesus asks us to be recreated anew; Jesus asks us to follow him and arise and be different.
This is the way the irritation then gives way to the pearl of great price.
As longs as we follow him then the pearl remains; when we stop we just become irritable and remains a grain of sand that irritates.
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