The Pearls Broke Again

In 2018, I was in the middle of a transition.

I was serving in a leadership role and attending a conference when I rushed out of a room carrying the weight of uncertainty. Organizational changes were taking place. New leadership was coming. Questions about the future lingered in the air.

As I hurried down the hallway, the pearl bracelet my mother had given me when I got married suddenly broke.

Pearls scattered everywhere.

The bracelet was more than jewelry.

My mother gave me the pearls in 2008 when I got married. Two years later, in 2010, she transitioned.

The pearls became more than a gift.

They represented love, legacy, memory, wisdom, and connection.

They were a reminder of where I came from, whose shoulders I stand on, and the values she instilled in me.

As I stood there overwhelmed, a stranger approached and asked if I needed help.

I handed him a small plastic bag and asked him to collect the pearls.

His response surprised me. "No," he said. "I'll hold the bag. You pick up the pearls."

So there I was, gathering every pearl one by one.

At the time, I did not fully understand the significance of the moment. I simply knew it mattered.

That same year, I launched my educational consulting business, To Everything There Is A Season.

Looking back now, I realize that season required me to gather the pearls of my experience, my gifts, my leadership, my faith, and my purpose and carry them into something new.

Recently, the pearls broke again.

This time, I was sitting at my computer wearing a beautiful white pearl necklace. Earlier that day, I had shared the original story with a client.

Moments later, I stood up.

The necklace broke.

Pearls scattered again.

This time, however, something different happened.

Immediately, I heard these words in my spirit:

"The pearls broke again."

Not "your necklace broke."

Not "your jewelry broke."

"The pearls broke again."

As I sat with those words, I began reflecting not only on the moment, but on the symbolism of pearls themselves.

Pearls are unique.

Unlike gemstones that are mined from the earth, pearls are formed through a process.

What begins as an irritant becomes something valuable over time.

Layer by layer, pressure produces beauty.

Perhaps that is why pearls have long represented wisdom, maturity, transformation, and value developed through experience.

In many ways, pearls remind us that some of life's greatest treasures are formed through seasons we never would have chosen for ourselves.

Then another realization came.

The pearls were given to me in 2008.

My mother transitioned in 2010.

The pearls first broke in 2018.

They broke again in 2026.

As I reflected on those dates, I could not ignore the pattern.

Eight years from receiving the pearls to the first break.

Eight years from the first break to the second.

In both instances, I found myself standing at the edge of transition.

Not with answers.

Not with certainty.

But with the awareness that one season was ending and another was beginning.

I do not claim to understand all the mysteries of God.

But I have learned to pay attention when patterns emerge.

Sometimes what appears to be an ordinary moment is actually an invitation to pause, reflect, and discern what God may be revealing in the season.

The first time the pearls broke, I did not understand what God was doing.

I only understood it looking backward.

I could connect the dots after the season had passed.

This time feels different.

The pearls broke again.

And before the answers arrived, the sign arrived.

Before the clarity arrived, the sign arrived.

Before I knew what was next, the sign arrived.

Perhaps that is how faith works.

We are often given an indication before we are given an explanation.

As I reflected on both moments, I realized something else.

The pearls did not lose their value.

The string broke.

The pearls remained.

Perhaps that is the lesson.

Sometimes God allows the string to break because the arrangement that carried us through one season cannot carry us into the next.

The gifts remain.

The wisdom remains.

The calling remains.

The lessons remain.

The faith remains.

The pearls remain.

What changes is how they are being connected.

So now I find myself asking a different question.

Not, "Why did the pearls break?"

But:

"Lord, how are You restringing them for this next season?"

Because if He was faithful when the pearls broke in 2018, I believe He will be faithful now.

I realize now that it was never really about the pearls.

The pearls were the sign.

The deeper question is what God is revealing through the season.

The pearls broke again.

And perhaps that is not the end of the story.

Perhaps it is the beginning of the next chapter.

The Pearls Broke Again

Journey Through The Seasons With Me.

— Dr. Tasheka L. Green