Joshua’s Pearls

Helping Others Make a Difference

My son, Joshua Adam Smith, was unjustly murdered at the age of 22. This blog page was formed to allow me and others to share how God has allowed this tragic end to his life on earth to become a multitude of Pearls.

My hope is that this site will allow Joshua’s spirit to make a Difference even after his body is no longer with us.

A pearl is a precious gemstone made as a result of truly a miraculous event. Unlike other gemstones pearls do not need to be cut and polished by man to bring out their beauty. A natural pearl begins its life as a foreign object, such as a parasite or piece of shell that accidentally lodges itself in an oyster’s soft inner body where it cannot be expelled. To ease this irritant, the oyster’s body begins to secrete a smooth, hard crystalline substance around the irritant in order to protect itself. This substance is called “nacre.” As long as the irritant remains within its body, the oyster will continue to secrete nacre around it, layer upon layer. Over time, the irritant will be completely encased by the silky crystalline coatings. And the result, ultimately, is the pearl.

How something so wondrous emerges from an oyster’s way of protecting itself is truly miraculous. For the nacre is not just a soothing substance. It is composed of microscopic crystals of calcium carbonate, aligned perfectly with one another, so that light passing along the axis of one crystal is reflected and refracted by another to produce a rainbow of light and color.