my cup runneth over

            Wilma gave me the mug – Wilma, who wastes no time on the weather.  She hops into the passenger’s seat and says, “We don’t have a long drive…what do you need to talk about, girl?”  And we’re off.

            Later, the mug.  Sage green and embellished with a bird, and the Word: “Be still, and know that I am God” Psalm 46.10.  She doesn’t know it, but habit finds me here each morning, with tea – in her mug – and my Bible.  Tea…with milk and honey.

            Then yesterday and the mug slid from my fingers and fell on a piece of stoneware in the sink.  I almost threw it out – I have little room for dishes deficient, little patience for things flawed.  But here I sit, with my chipped cup and tea seeping from the crack onto the saucer, longing inside for the peace outside my window – the birds singing and the sun slipping over the horizon.  And I am thinking about the Potter and vessels and cups running over.

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away…But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.  Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.  Isaiah 64:6, 8-9.




Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”  But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.  II Timothy 2:19-21

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed – always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus might also be made manifest in our body… For which cause we faint not; even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporary; but the things which are not seen are eternal.  II Corinthians 4:6-10; 16-18.

Just yesterday I was on my knees crying to the Potter, that I am unfit and He is unfair, wondering if I am a vessel useful for the Master at all.  This morning, I thank Him that He is patient with dishes deficient and with me, flawed.  Awed that He sanctifies me, fills me with this treasure: the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

Broken, yet running over.