Very beautiful and moving…
This is a true and truly beautiful story!
A lovely, cheerful little girl with blonde curls, almost five years old,
while waiting with his mother near the checkout, he spots:
A necklace of all-glossy mother-of-pearl beads in a pink aluminum box!
Oh please, Mom, can I have them?
Mom, please, I'm begging you?
Quickly, the mother looked at the back of the pink box and turned around
at those little blue eyes that were pleading with its little face turned upward.
$1.85. That's almost two dollars. You know, if you really want them,
You can do great things at home, and in no time at all you’ll have enough money to buy them yourself.
And your birthday is only a week away,
You'll probably get some money from your grandmother too.
The moment Jenny got home, she emptied her little piggy bank.
She earns 17 cents. After dinner, she did more than ask to help around the house.
and then she went to the neighbor, Mrs. McJames, asking her
if she could pull her weeds for 10 cents?
On his birthday, his grandmother gave him another dollar and
Finally, she had enough money to buy the necklace.
Oh, Jenny loved her pearls. They made her feel like a lady and a big girl.
She carried them everywhere, to church on Sundays, to daycare, even to bed!
The only times they took them off was to swim or take a bath.
Because her mother had told her that if they got wet, they might turn her neck green.
Jenny had a father who loved her very much and every evening
When it was time to put her to bed, he would stop whatever he was doing to tell her a nice story.
One evening, after finishing his story, he asked Jenny,
Do you love me?
Oh yes, Dad, you know I love you.
“Then, give me your pearls.” “Oh, Papa, not my pearls.”
But you can have my white horse from my collection, Princess.
The one with the pink tail. Do you remember, Dad? You were the one who gave it to me.
It's my favorite.
"It's okay, my little one. Daddy loves you. Goodnight," and as always, he brushed his lips against her cheek.
About a week later, after bedtime story, Jenny's dad asked her again,
Do you love me?
Dad, you know I love you
“Then, give me your pearls.” “Oh Dad, not my pearls.”
But you know, you can have my doll, the new one, it’s brand new,
The one I received for my birthday is so beautiful.
and you can even have the little yellow coat that goes with its shoes.
That's okay. Sleep well. May God bless you, my little one. Daddy loves you.
And as always, he tenderly caressed her cheek with a kiss.
A few evenings passed, and one evening when his father entered the room,
Jenny was sitting cross-legged at the foot of the bed.
As he approached her, he noticed her little chin trembling.
and a silent tear rolling down her small cheek.
What's wrong, Jenny? What's going on?
Jenny said nothing but raised her small, slender hands toward her father.
And when she opened them, the pearl necklace was there.
With a trembling voice, she told him, “Here, Dad, this is for you.”
With her own tears streaming down her face,
Jenny's kind father took the fake pearls in one hand and, with the other, pulled out of his pocket
a blue velvet case with a genuine pearl necklace and gave it to him
They had had them from the beginning.
He was just waiting for her to give him the fake pearls
so that he could give her the real treasure.
Like God, He expects us to give Him the false things we cling to in our lives,
to replace them with a magnificent treasure.
Are you holding onto something that God wants you to let go of?
Do you have companions who are not necessary and who hurt you?
Habits, activities you are so accustomed to and attached to
that it seems impossible to get rid of?
Sometimes it’s hard to see what the other hand is holding, but believe in one thing…
God will never take something you hold dear
without replacing it with something better!
Marylena