The Pearl and the Box: What Are You Really Seeking?
We spend our lives polishing beautiful containers while missing the treasure we're meant to become.
When you become the pearl, any box will do.
Elder Boyd K. Packer once shared a parable that changed how I see everything:
A merchant found the perfect pearl—the pearl of great price. He had the finest craftsman carve a superb jewel box, lined with blue velvet. He displayed his treasure for all to see. But soon he turned away in sorrow.
It was the box they admired, not the pearl.
I think about that merchant's sorrow often. I see it in our buildings, our programs, our positions. We craft such beautiful boxes. And we miss the pearl entirely.
Looking Beyond the Mark
Elder Maxwell put his finger on it: "People who look beyond the mark are clearly not without sight. They can see, but it is what they choose to look at (or for) that causes a lack of vision."
The mark is Christ. To look beyond that mark—to focus on the container instead of the contents—is to fail fatally in perception.
Think about it. The Pharisees had the most beautiful religious boxes ever crafted: the temple, the law, the traditions. They polished those boxes until they gleamed. But when the Pearl of Great Price stood before them in person, they couldn't see Him. They were too busy admiring their boxes.
Like the Jews of old, many today look for the second coming for liberation from their Roman Empire, when Christ's words and grace give us power to become and create Heaven on Earth right now. We're waiting for external deliverance when internal transformation is already available.
We do the same thing. We build beautiful churches and forget to build beautiful souls. We perfect our programs and neglect our transformation. We seek positions and miss becoming.
The Light in Your Eyes
Here's what I've learned: You can't fake the pearl.
The light you carry isn’t reflected—it’s radiated.
"The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light" (3 Nephi 13:22).
This isn't about reflection—it's about radiation. When your eye is single to God's glory, when you're filled with His light, it shows. Not because you're reflecting something external, but because you're radiating something internal.
"And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things" (D&C 88:67).
The outer will follow suit, but never the other way around. You can polish the outside of the cup all day long, but if the inside is filthy, you're still holding poison (Alma 60:23).
Bought Off at Low Prices
Why do we choose boxes over pearls? Elder Maxwell knew: "How tragic it is that so many mortals are mercenaries for the adversary; that is, they do his bidding and are hired by him—bought off at such low prices. A little status, a little money, a little praise, a little fleeting fame, and they are willing to do the bidding of him who can offer all sorts of transitory 'rewards,' but who has no celestial currency."
The adversary is brilliant. He doesn't need to keep you from religion—he just needs to keep you focused on religious boxes instead of the pearl. A calling becomes about position, not service. A testimony becomes about performance, not transformation. Temple attendance becomes about checking boxes, not becoming.
President Uchtdorf said it plainly: "You could pile up the accumulated currency of the entire world and it could not buy a loaf of bread in the economy of heaven."
So why are we working so hard for counterfeit pearls?
The Real Pearl of Great Price
Here's what the Spirit has taught me: The Pearl of Great Price isn't just the manifestation of Christ TO you. It's becoming the manifestation OF Christ.
It isn't about waiting for the Lord to manifest Himself to us, nor about going to the mountains to plead to see His face. It is about aligning with every word that proceeds from His mouth, to be more than you can on your own. It is to be a manifestation of Christ to all you come in contact with.
When John wrote about Christ manifesting Himself to those who keep His commandments (John 14:21), he wasn't talking about a one-time vision. He was talking about an ongoing transformation where you become so like Him that your very presence manifests His attributes.
You ARE the pearl.
Your body is the recording device that witnesses what you let in and out of it. Your eye is the gateway. When it's single to His glory, light floods in and radiates out. Not reflected light—generated light. The same light that fills immensity of space.
Stop Polishing Boxes
Elder Packer included this poem in his talk:
We are all blind, until we see That in the universal plan Nothing is worth the making if It does not make the man.
Why build these buildings glorious, If man unbuilded goes? In vain we build the world, unless The builder also grows.
Every building, every program, every calling, every structure—they're all just boxes. Beautiful boxes, maybe. Necessary boxes, perhaps. But boxes nonetheless.
The question is: Are they making you? Are they transforming you into the pearl? Or are you so busy polishing the box that you're forgetting to become?
The Ocean, Not the Drops
We live in an economy of scarcity, counting drops in buckets. But God operates in abundance—Missouri River abundance, ocean abundance. (D&C 121:33 & 117:8).
The Lord isn't parceling out light in droplets. He's offering floods. But we're so focused on our beautiful little buckets that we miss the ocean.
Stop negotiating for drops when oceans await.
"Rise up, O men of God, be done with lesser things!" Stop negotiating for drops when oceans await. Stop polishing boxes when you could become pearls.
Lost in Service
For some, the journey begins with mountain-top experiences—those sacred moments when heaven touches earth and we're forever changed. Like making covenants, these experiences can come with little effort on our part. They're gifts of grace, divine invitations to something more.
But here's what I've learned: The experience is just the beginning. Like making a covenant takes but a moment while keeping it takes a lifetime, the real work—the deep purging—comes in living the light given. This is where Light becomes Truth. Obedience to Light becomes Truth.
God isn't God just because He is filled with Light. He is God because He is Truth—the embodiment of one who has sought and received Light and become the Father of Lights. His glory is intelligence, even Light and Truth. It is one thing to know of God (have the Light), it is another to be like Abba (live the Light, become Truth). It's found in getting lost in the service of others (Mosiah 2:17). Each act of service, each moment of genuine love for another, purges us of dross.
You find yourself when you lose yourself lifting others.
This is the refiner's fire—not some distant future event, but the daily crucible of Christlike service. He sits like a silversmith, carefully watching, purging, refining, until He can see His image reflected in us. Until our pearl shines like unto Him.
When you lose yourself in lifting others, you find yourself transformed. This is how you prepare to meet God—not just by seeking visions, but by becoming like Him through serving His children. For in that day, you will be like Him, because you spent your days becoming Him.
The Invitation
So here's my question: What are you really seeking?
The perfect calling? That's a box. The ideal program? That's a box. The impressive position? That's a box. Even the beautiful building? Still a box.
The pearl? The pearl is you, filled with light, radiating Christ's attributes, comprehending all things because your eye is single to His glory.
The merchant in the parable had it backward. He thought the pearl needed a beautiful box. But the truth is, when you become the pearl—when you're filled with that celestial light—any box will do. A prison cell becomes a temple. A humble home becomes a heaven. A simple calling becomes sacred ground.
And here's the beautiful paradox: While the humblest shack can radiate glory when filled with Light and Truth, the Lord doesn't leave us there. Like C.S. Lewis's parable, as we continue in Him, He knocks down a wall here and there, transforming our humble cottage into a palace—a temple of the Most High. In Father's kingdom of many mansions, we're meant to live abundantly. In Zion, there are no poor among us. The pearl doesn't just shine in spite of its circumstances; it transforms them.
The merchant thought the pearl needed a beautiful box. Christ makes the pearl beautiful—and then transforms the box.
Because it was never about the box.
Your Choice
Every day you choose: Polish the box or become the pearl?
Count drops or swim in oceans?
Seek position or seek transformation?
Reflect light or radiate it?
Wait for manifestations or become one?
The adversary will always offer you beautiful boxes at bargain prices. The Lord offers to make you a pearl of infinite price. One requires finite imagination and willpower—the arm of flesh pursuing its "eat, drink, and be merry" agenda. The other requires revelation to think and live in accordance with His law—training that same arm of flesh to become an instrument of joy in the hands of the Lord, empowering you with infinite possibilities. One keeps you bound to the finite. The other makes you One with the Infinite.
But here's what 2 Nephi 32:9 teaches us: becoming requires performance in the Lord. It's not passive. Becoming one with Christ, as He was with Father, requires a willing heart and submissive mind. It comes about with much prayer and fasting. This isn't about willpower and imagination (though those have their place)—it's about surrender and action in Christ, even faith to be like Abba. It's the divine transmutation: natural fallen man becoming exalted divine nature through grace-enabled effort.
Choose the pearl. Let your eye be single. Let the light flood in until it radiates out. Become what you're seeking instead of just seeking.
The builder must grow, or we build in vain.
You are the pearl. Take on the yoke of Christ. Be purified from the inside out—and He will transform what surrounds you. He’ll turn your growing pains into growth, your humble dwelling into a mansion. For in His kingdom, dominion flows not by force, but by grace and love. Seek—and you will find the pearl within you. And as He enlarges your soul, He will enlarge your life.
Because when the pearl is sanctified, the box expands—wide enough to receive all that God has (Doctrine and Covenants 84:36-38).