The Matchless Pearl

David Morse spent many evenings at Rambhau’s cabin, reading to him from the Bible and explaining that God's love and salvation is found in Jesus.  Rambhau enjoyed listening to the Word of God, but when David encouraged Rambhau to accept Jesus as Lord, Rambhau would refuse saying "Your Christian way to Heaven is too easy for me!  I would feel like a beggar who has been let in out of pity.  I want to deserve my place in Heaven."

Nothing that David could say seemed to have any effect on Rambhau's decision as the years passed. Then one evening David heard a knock on his door.  It was Rambhau.

"Hello, come in my dear friend," said David.

"No," said Rambhau.  "I want you to come with me to my house for a short time.  I have something to show you.  Please do not say no."

"Of course I'll come," replied Morse.

As they neared his cabin, Rambhau said, "In a week's time I will start working for my place in Heaven.  I am leaving for Delhi, and I am crawling there on my knees."

Morse exclaimed.  "It's nine hundred miles to Delhi. The skin will break on your knees, and you will have blood poisoning before you get there - if you ever get there!"

"No, I must get to Delhi," affirmed Rambhau, "and the immortals will reward me for it!  The suffering will be sweet, for it will purchase Heaven for me!"

"Rambhau, my friend, you can't.  How can I let you do that, when Jesus has already suffered and died to purchase Heaven for you?"

But the old man could not be moved.  "You are my dearest friend on earth.  Through all these years you have stood by me in sickness and in want.  But even you cannot turn me from my desire to purchase my eternal bliss.  I must go to Delhi on my knees!"

They entered inside the cabin, Morse sat in a chair that Rambhau had built just for him shortly after he came to India - the same chair he had sat in on so many occasions while he had read the Bible to his friend.  Rambhau left the room and then solemnly returned with a small heavy strongbox.

"I have had this heavy box for years and I keep only one thing in it." he said.  "Now I will tell you all about it, my friend.  You see, I once had a son..."

"A son!  Why, Rambhau, you have never said a word about him!"

"No, I couldn't."  Even as he spoke, the old diver's eyes filled with tears.  "But now I must tell you, for soon I will leave, and who knows whether I shall ever return?  My son was a diver also.  He was the best pearl diver on the coasts of India.  He had the swiftest dive, the keenest eye, the strongest arm, and the longest breath of any man who ever dived for pearls.  What joy he brought to me!”

"Now, as you know," Rambhau went on, "most pearls have some defect or blemish that only an expert can discern, but my son had always dreamed of finding the perfect pearl - one finer than any ever found before.  Then the day came when he found it!  But in gathering it, he stayed under water too long.  Although many helped get him back up on land, he died shortly after.  The perfect pearl had cost him his life."

The old pearl diver bowed his head.  For a moment his whole body shook, and his tears fell.  "All these years," he continued, "I have kept this pearl.  Now I am going and may not return, so to you, my best friend, I am giving my pearl."

Rambhau unlocked the heavy strongbox and took out a carefully wrapped package.  Carefully he unwrapped it and placed a perfect mammoth pearl in Morse's hands.

It was one of the largest pearls ever found off the coast of India, and glowed with a luster never seen in cultured pearls.  It would have brought a fabulous sum in any market. For a moment Morse gazed at it with awe and said, "Rambhau!  What a pearl!"

Then Morse was struck with a new thought- this was the very opportunity he had prayed for to help Rambhau understand the value of Jesus' sacrifice.

"Rambhau," he said, "this is an amazing pearl!  Please let me buy it.  I would give you ten thousand dollars for it. I will give you fifteen thousand dollars for it - or if it takes more then I will work for it!"

"What? What do you mean?" Rambhau asked. Rambhau stiffened his whole body.  "This pearl is beyond price.  No man in all the world has enough money to pay what this pearl is worth to me.  A million dollars could not buy it.  I will not sell it to you.  You may only have it as a gift."

"No, Rambhau, I cannot accept that. It would be too easy.  I must pay earn it."

The old pearl diver was stunned.  "You don't understand at all, my friend.  Don't you see?  My only son gave his life to get this pearl, and I wouldn't sell it for any money.  It's worth is in the lifeblood of my son.  I cannot sell this, but I can give it to you because of the love I have for you."

Morse was choked, and for a moment could not speak.  Then he gripped the hand of the old man.  "Rambhau," he said in a low voice, "don't you see?  My words are just what you have been saying to God all the time."  The diver looked long and slowly he began to understand.

"God is offering you salvation as a free gift,"  Morse said.  "It is so great and priceless that no man on earth can buy it.  Millions of dollars are too little.  No man on earth could earn it even if he were to work for it all his life- his life would be millions of years too short.  No man is good enough to deserve it.  It cost God the lifeblood of His only Son to gain entrance for you into Heaven.  In a million years, in a hundred pilgrimages, you could not earn that entrance.  All you can do is accept it as God's great love for you.

"Rambhau, of course I will accept your pearl in deep humility.  But Rambhau, won't you accept God's great gift of Salvation, knowing it cost Him the death of His Son to offer it to you?"

Tears rolled down the old man's cheeks.  The veil that had clouded his understanding was lifting.  "I see it now.  I could not believe that salvation was free.  But now I understand.  Some things are too priceless to be bought or earned.  I will accept His salvation, my friend!"