A Little Piece of William Barclay on the Kingdom of Heaven

Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like the Merchant who was seeking goodly pearls.  When he had found a very valuable pearl he went away and sold everything he had, nad bought it.  (Matthew 13:45,46)

 "Let us remember what the Kingdom of Heaven is.  To be in the Kingdom is to accept and to do the will of God.  That is to say, to do the will of God is no grim, gray, agonizing thing; it is a lovely thing.  Beyond the discipline, beyond the sacrifice, beyond the self-denial, beyond the cross, there lies the supreme loveliness which is nowhere else.  There is only one way to bring peace to the heart, joy to the mind, beauty to the life, and that is to accept and to do the will of God.
It is suggestive to find that there are many pearls, but there is only one pearl of great price.  That is to say, there are many fine things in this world, and there are many things in which a man can find loveliness.  He can find loveliness in knowledge and in the reaches of the human mind, in art and music and literature and all the triumphs of the human spirit; he can find loveliness in serving his fellow-men, even if that service springs from humanitarian rather than from purely Christian motives; he can find loveliness in human relationships.  These are all lovely, but they are lesser lovelinesses.  The supreme beauty lies in the acceptance of the will of God.  This is not to belittle the other things; they too are pearls; but the supreme pearl is the willing obedience which makes us friends of God."
-William Barclay