Love lights

"It makes a circle!” my three-year-old grandson declared as he played with a flashlight he pointed at the ceiling. I chuckled over how he was showing off his command of “shape” words. If only he knew how the study of light has baffled and intrigued scientists for ages! Maybe, if he takes a bent toward art, he will find enjoyment in portraying light patterns.

Recently, as I prayed over and grieved a dark situation with people I know, I sensed the Lord pushing me to read again the “light” verses of First John. I’d already been thinking about “light,” after my husband “romanticized” our evening meal of leftovers with a candle in a Haitian-made clay pot with cutouts, a gift from a friend who did mission work there. Initially, it reminded me of this scripture:

For God who said, “let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God, and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:6-7).

As a “clay jar” I try to reach out to others with God’s grace and light.  But sometimes it's hard to shine before others. I think that’s why I recently felt a God-nudge to reread the counsel of the apostle John, written before his old-age death:

If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.(1 John 1:6)

If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar.  For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. (1 John 4:20)

By the way, “brother” is a gender-neutral term for someone in the family of God, whether or not they’re blood related. I find these verses very sad because they highlight the alienation that results from broken relationships.

But it doesn’t have to be that way:

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)

I’d rather be in that type of a “circle of light”!

The company of clay pots

A continuing series inspired by sights in Kauai.
The gigantic nursery we visited in eastern Kauai also had a lot devoted to planters and pots. Oh, my! I had a hard time imagining the size of the potter’s wheels necessary to throw the largest ones. Thankfully, in Kauai’s warm climate, they won’t suffer the indignities of being cracked by frozen soil inside.  That’s what happened one winter to one of my nicer clay pots.

Paul’s words, which I first memorized in the King James version, rang in my heart:

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. (1 Corinthians 4:7)
The NIV puts it bluntly: “We have this treasure in jars of clay.” We’re just lumps of baked earth, mud, if you will.  For all the ways we try to dress up these old bodies, with preening and haircuts and clothes, it comes down to this: without the breath of God in our beings, we’re as dead as dirt.

Paul was dealing with a church that must have enjoyed showmanship. He previously had to censure their tolerance of blatant sin, raucous and showy services, and divisions over which pastor they followed. (Ouch! I’ve seen that in Christendom today!).  He drew the line:

When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (1 Corinthians 2:1-2)

 God doesn’t need fragile, priceless Ming vases to carry out His work. He uses ordinary people who don’t call attention to themselves. The ones who see themselves as clay pots, fired in the oven of affliction, sturdy and ready to go to work. Proclaiming Jesus, as Savior.

 There’s one problem with this picture.  All the pots are waiting, unused. Paul would say: fill ‘em with dirt, get them growing something. Keep them earth-serving, heaven-focused:

Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (2 Corinthians 4:16-17)