A favorite family activity at my house is sitting down each evening and reading aloud various stories for the family. One of our favorite stories comes from Guy Demaupassant called "The Necklace."
A couple of moderate means was invited to a lavish company party. The wife, Mathilde, so wanted to impress the guests that she borrowed what she supposed to be a very expensive necklace. They had a grand time, and she was proud of the necklace, but the evening was ruined when she arrived home and discovered the necklace had been lost without notice.
In order to pay for the lost necklace, the couple moved into a cheap, run-down apartment, and both worked at whatever jobs were available. It took them ten long years to repay the debt. Old and worn down, the wife saw her friend from who she had borrowed the necklace. Unrecognized, Mathilde told her friend the truth about what had happened. Great was her shock when her friend Jeannie told Mathilde the necklace was only cheap glass-- an imitation, worth only a few dollars
It is a great parable of life. Too many of us pay too much for too little, only to learn late in life how foolish we have been. We are worth so much more to our Lord, however, than cosmetic jewelry. Jesus asked in Matthew 6:25-26 "Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" To God we are His children, worth enough to send His only Son to die for, so let's make sure that what we're living for is worth his investment!
