Does your family have a favorite bowl? It’s the one that you have to use to mix up brownies or they just won’t taste quite right. Or the one that all the birthday cakes get made in. Maybe it’s Great-Grandma’s bowl for her special dessert that she always managed to be pulling piping-hot from the oven as you walked through her door?
At my house it is a dark blue mixing bowl. I simply don’t believe that I could make brownies in another bowl! My bowl is no longer perfect, it’s been around awhile. There is a chip on the side from when it was used to take scraps out to the chickens back in the day. The funny thing is that chip almost makes it more endearing to me.
My bowl has a history and a story–just like me. I also have been around awhile and have collected my share of “chips” and bumps. The awesome thing is that instead of them making me worthless, ready to be thrown out, they make me stronger and more resilient. I am so thankful that God does not need perfect vessels in His family. He takes me with all my imperfections and still uses me for His glory.
The even better news is that unlike the chip on my bowl, God can actually heal the hurts of my life. They don’t disappear, but instead transform into tools that He then uses to help someone else. If you are feeling like maybe you have just been around too long to be of value, or that you have too many imperfections for God to love you or use you, please remember that He is not looking for perfect people. Perfect people would be of no use to Him because they would not have a story to share and they certainly would not need Him!
So don’t be afraid to come to God with all your bumps and bruises and imperfections. He is just waiting to use you and your story in His bigger story, the one where in the end He conquers all and we are with Him forever!
“Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” II Corinthians 4:7-9
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