The Pearl of Great Price.

Photo credit: A beautiful and rare Nacreous Cloud spotted in Bradwell, Norfolk Credit: Owen Curtis. 21 Dec 2023

Recently I have seen clouds that looked to me like the oil of the Holy Spirit had been spilt across the sky, beautiful rainbow colours fringing the clouds, and signs in the heavens.

I did some research; these clouds are really rare at our latitude. They need temperatures lower than -78C in the upper stratosphere to form as light is refracted through ice crystals. They are called Nacreous Clouds (after the nacre or mother of pearl produced by oysters as they surround foreign particles within their shells to form a pearl), and they create iridescent (rainbow) colours in the clouds.

This verse came immediately to mind:

Again the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. Matthew 13:45

And I felt the heart of God for His creation. His tender love and compassion enfolding the earth as he draws near in redemptive embrace…

… This earth which will pass away and be emptied, burned up by fire and made desolate. This earth that mourns and withers and languishes and lies defiled under its inhabitants, who have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Isaiah 24

We do not deserve the love of our Father. The inhabitants of the earth have broken covenant with their God but God has not broken covenant with us.

For God so loved the world, that he gave. John 3:16

He sold all that He had. He gave of Himself totally, completely, utterly, selling Himself so that He could buy back His beloved.

We are His pearl of great price. Though this earth is passing away, it is being reclothed in glory as the promises and presence of God are wrapped around and around it and around and around us, transforming and healing all that is broken and defiled.

Beloved church, to you who have prayed and wept for breakthrough, to you whose soul feels like it is in prison … lift up your eyes. Jesus is close, and His redemption draws nigh. He comes with the release of the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. He has paid the ransom price. He is giving you beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for the spirit of mourning. Your valley of weeping is becoming a place of springs; your narrow place is broadening. He has not forsaken this world, and He has not forsaken you. YOU are His pearl of great price, and He surrounds you with songs and joyful shouts of deliverance. He surrounds you with himself, with his wraparound presence. The appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord is being made manifest and visible for all with an eye to see and a heart that can understand.

The appearance of the brilliant light all around Him was like that of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. Ezekial 1:28