A parable is told about a merchant who searched the world for precious jewels and finally found the perfect pearl. He hired a craftsman to make a special box for the pearl so he could display it. The craftsman made an exquisite jewelry box with blue velvet lining, but much to the merchant’s dismay, people did not recognize the value of the pearl. They paid more attention to the box than to the pearl inside it.¹ The box in this parable could be compared to a house and the pearl to the people inside it. Do we sometimes pay more attention to our homes—the walls, windows, and furnishings—than to the people who live there? After all, what makes a house into a home are the loved ones inside it.
Not long ago, a seven-year-old boy returned to the house from which his grandmother had recently moved. He had been to “Grandma’s house” more times than he could count. He loved to play there, begged to go there, and always felt safe and loved there. But when he walked inside the empty house and saw that Grandma really had moved, he shook his head and said, “It’s no fun here anymore.” It wasn’t the house he loved; it was the loving grandma who had lived there.
Just like the jewelry box that contained the perfect pearl, the house—no matter how beautiful—is not as precious as the people inside who love and care for each other. Our greatest treasures are the memories we hold dear, the relationships we nurture, the traditions we share. In other words, our family is the most marvelous treasure, the “pearl of great price”² that we cherish.
Program #4019
¹See Boyd K. Packer, in Conference Report, Apr. 2000, 6; or Ensign, May 2000, 7
²See Matthew 13:45–46.