I’ve always been surprised the way my brother Caleb has a knack for finding really valuable things. Like the racing game tunnel shortcut or the one piece of evidence you looked everywhere for in your Nancy Drew video game only to discover one day that your little brother had just, ‘found it.’
And surprisingly, this isn’t even a gift of his. If he asks you where something is, chances are he is staring right at it and still hasn’t seen it. Instead, it’s a persistence and patience on his part to keep looking and discovering things in a world or a place that everyone else has already passed over.
Of course, that was how he discovered George MacDonald.
My brother was perusing my grandmother’s bookshelves, the same ones that we’d glanced at hundreds of times during our intense games of hide-and-go seek tag in her house. But the difference was that he kept looking. And one day, he just picked up one of George MacDonald’s books, edited by Michael Philips, and started reading it. He was intrigued – enough to read another one, and another one after that. After The Highlander’s Last Song (What’s Mine’s Mine), he was so fascinated with George MacDonald that he tried to introduce me to him.
I was a little skeptical at first. After all, what could a centuries-old, rather-obscure author have to say that I hadn’t read a hundred times before?
And yet, I found a kindred spirit in that old soul of MacDonald’s.
How does the Bible describe the kingdom of heaven - the place where justice, truth, love and goodness reign supreme? Matthew 13 describes it like a treasure lying buried in a field, waiting to be found. It is like a pearl of such intense value that when a pearl merchant finds it, she sells all she has to buy it. It’s a treasure, both new and old, waiting for us to discover and uncover it.
What I discovered in essence, is that this man, MacDonald, was not only looking for the same thing I was, but he had found it. He had found the Pearl of Great Price. And he was sharing it through his stories, inviting me into a world, where like C.S. Lewis, I could discover, and keep on uncovering this Pearl with him.
My dream for a long time now has been to tell stories. But in all the stories I had read, I’d never found one that really, truly captured the Pearl - the riches I’d been discovering in Jesus. Each story found a little piece – a glimmer of beauty, the essence of truth, the growth in discomfort, the richness of nature. But it was so hard to find people who were piecing it all together to discover the Pearl of life, Love himself. And it was even harder to find people who wanted to get to know Him.
So, meeting George MacDonald through Malcolm the fateful day that I first picked The Fisherman’s Lady, in essence, changed the course of my life. Perhaps at that point I was already the merchant who had found the Pearl. But now, with MacDonald’s stories, I was realizing that I was ready to sell everything in my life to hold that Pearl in my hand every day, to keep uncovering its worth.
Though this discovery happened almost three years ago, my brother and I are more enthusiastic about George MacDonald than ever. This spring we just embarked on a trip to Cullen, Scotland where many of MacDonald’s stories came to life for us in such an astounding way - more beautiful than we could have ever imagined. As we saw ruined castles, great houses, humble cottages, double rainbows, star-flung nights, kindhearted humans, and even a glimpse of the northern lights, I can only describe it as all of creation revealing the glory of the kingdom of heaven, Our Pearl. The one who came down to earth just to tell us that he wants to be our best friend. The one who asks us to just choose him. To choose life. To choose love. To give up all the rest, and to do the next thing He’s given us to do.
So, thanks, Caleb for showing me how to keep searching - patiently and persistently - often in places that everyone else has passed over. Because the Pearl of Immeasurable Worth is out there, just waiting for us encounter Him and discover His worth.
Cullen, Scotland