From Broken Jars to Broken Vessels

All these pieces

Broken and scattered

In mercy gathered

Mended and whole

Empty handed

But not forsaken

I've been set free

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The song Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace) has brought out all of the things God has been laying on my heart lately. I’ve been meditating on the story of the alabaster jar. Here is my quick version:

Basically a woman came to Jesus while he was hanging out before the Passover (and his death), a poured out a perfume worth a year’s wages. Then she was washing His feet with her hair. The other people were like “Woah crazy lady! You just wasted precious stuff that could have been traded in for moolah!” And Jesus taught a lesson about giving all you have to the Lord.

I keep picturing this in my head over and over again. I picture myself as the woman, except I carry the alabaster jar with the perfume and just hand it to Jesus. And when I need control back, I just stop over and pick up my jar (my stress, my burdens, my sin, my life) again.

But God and I have been chatting about this. You see the woman dumped it all out. She could NEVER get every last drop back in the jar. I feel God calling me to just drop the jar at His feet….let it all spill out, let the jar shatter - so I cannot pick it back up, put it back in.

“All these pieces broken and scattered.”

Doing this means only God could put the pieces back together. Only God could get every last drop back in the jar. Or maybe He will take the pieces and make something new. Maybe He will cash the perfume in for something else for His glory. And I keep thinking, “What will my life look like if I drop my jar?”

You take our failure

You take our weakness

You set Your treasure

In jars of clay

Every part of me wants to know. Every part of me wants to drop it. Except that one part of me that thinks it needs that control. Except that one part of me that wonders what I will do while He’s mending with His mercy.

And that’s where the part I like to skip come in. The part where crazy lady (now poor lady because she just threw away her expensive perfume) washes the feet of a man that has traipsed through poop and dirt in nearly bare feet with HER HAIR! “So what the heck does that mean?” I asked God!

His only word was...SERVE.

Not long after this story did Jesus wash His disciple’s feet (we were really into feet around Jesus’ death).

The woman (or as some of the gospels say “sinner”) with the alabaster jar wasn’t crazy - she was genuine. She laid it all out at His feet (literally!) and served while Jesus put her life back together for His glory. She didn’t take it back, she let it go.

So take this heart, Lord

I'll be Your vessel

The world to see

Your love in me