Pots and Lights

I ran across something incredible tonight!

"...'My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.'" 2 Corinthians 12:9

"We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves." 2 Corinthians 4:7

So the first verse. I mean, what to say! Nothing really, except for that I have found it to be extremely true in my life. When I am weak, then I can be made strong. Perhaps because when I am "strong," I lose sight of Who I should be focusing on. Satan likes to tell me that I'm handling things on my own. He's not called the father of lies for nothin' (John 8:44). This pretty much ties in with the second verse. It made me smile out loud. Christ chose us WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS. Please sit and let this marinate for a second. You have to stir it around, otherwise it will stick to the pot. WHILE. WE. WERE. STILL. SINNERS. Ok, I am so glad that God is in charge of the world and not me. Because I guarantee you that if it were up to me on what to do with the people who were trying to kill me and hated me, the world would have been doomed. But in God's unfathomable graciousness, He saved us. While we were still sinners! Now, back to the verse (sorry about the rambling, it's late).

I love this verse because of its symbolism. "Fragile clay jars" reminds me of art class and my clumsiness. My high school art teacher would never let us put our clay pots into the kiln, with good reason, because of how fragile they were. When I read this verse, I imagine Light sitting in a pot. Maybe with a lid on it, maybe with a peep hole, but it's in there regardless of if the pot wants it or not. When I think of the word "fragile," I simultaneously think of the word "broken."

And the crazy thing is, the light in this pot can only fully shine through if it is broken.

And the crazy thing is, the Light in me can only fully shine through if I come to Him.

Broken.