“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:45-46
Today is the Feast of Christ the King. It’s where we contemplate the paradox of a King who humbled Himself more than any other King, even offering His life for us. We say, as St. Dismas did,
“Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Luke 23:42
As I received communion today I came back to the pew and knelt down and closed my eyes. I prayed, “ Lord, make my will one with yours,” and I contemplated Christ the King on the cross.
Suddenly, an image appeared in my head. It was of a large cross up on a mountain high. But instead of seeing Christ on the Cross, I saw a pearl in the middle of it. A large shiny beautiful pearl. The pearl and the cross had a light emanating so brightly from them. It was beautiful.
I continued to contemplate this when I came home. Why had this image popped in my head? What about a pearl? Then I remembered the verse from Matthew about the merchant and the pearl. The pearl represented salvation, the kingdom of heaven. And it was married to the cross, which reached the highest of mountains.
Christ truly is King. When we pick up our cross and follow Him, when we unite our suffering with Him, we are rewarded with more than the greatest pearls or riches in the world. We are rewarded with heavenly salvation. We will come face to face with the love of God, where every tear will be wiped away and joy reigns.
Veil of Veronica 
In the parable, the pearl of great value is you. The merchant is Jesus who went down to earth in human form and sold all that He had to buy that one pearl back, He saw such inestimable value in you that He was willing to give up all that He had, including His life, to save and redeem you.
That parable is very much like the one that immediately precedes it;
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
The kingdom of heaven is salvation, the field is the world, and the treasure hidden in the field is You. The man is Jesus. He looked down upon the world and saw You. Such was His joy when He found You that He buried You away in safety until the time that He could come into the world Himself to save and redeem You. When He finally came into the world as a man, He gave up everything that He had in order to buy back the world because He knew that He had buried and kept You, a treasure, safe within it,
So what do you make of my dream?
It seems more like a vision from your description. But no matter. The pearl represents perfection, and that is Jesus. A natural, physical pearl is created in its shell by irritation from a piece of sand entering the shell. And that was certainly what Jesus had to go through to obtain our salvation, enduring the whipping and the cross.
In Rev 21:21, the New Jerusalem descends from heaven at the start of the 1,000 year reign. God’s lives within the New Jerusalem, and it is surrounded by a high wall. But there are 12 gates that allow you to enter inside into God’s presence. What are those 12 gates made from? Pearl. We can only enter into inside through the gate that is made of Jesus, as in “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father except by Me.”
Does that resonate within your spirit, Veronica?
You’re right. I didn’t mean dream. I had an angelic dream a few weeks back. This was a vision I had in my head at church. And yes, thank you for that.
Also if as you said before — in the merchant story — then we are the pearl too that He is perfecting. Thanks doctordave777
Yes, interesting. The parable has its own interpretatation, and quite definitely, you are the pearl that He laid His life down for. But in your vision both can be combined validly. As John says;
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
When Jesus returns, or when we pass to the next world, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. What a wonder that is!
Amen