Most of us have struggled at one time or another with the monthly rent on an apartment or the monthly payment on a house.  Our dream is that one day we can live in a home that’s completely paid for—and we will!  The fact that our heavenly home has been paid for is implied by the single most spectacular physical characteristic:  Each gate is made of a single pearl. Pearls are formed when a small grain of sand becomes embedded in an oyster, irritating it. To soften the irritation, the oyster coats the grain of sand with a smooth layer of mother of pearl. As long as the oyster can feel the irritation, it continues to coat the sand with layers of pearl.
What kind of irritation would have been necessary to form the pearls that make up the gates to our heavenly home when they are so large they can fit into a wall that is two hundred feet thick?! Could it be that the pearls were not formed as a result of irritation, but as a result of the horrendous, severe suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross?  The pearly gates will remind us, every time we enter our Home, that it has been paid for by the death of God’s own Son!