One warm, Florida winter day, my family and I were participating in a Bible study retreat at the Marywood Conference Center along the banks of the St. Johns River near St. Augustine. The sky was gray with the rain clouds that had soaked everything since early in the morning. The air was heavy with humidity. Thunder and lightning occasionally gave a quick startle to all of us inside the conference room. But the view from the large windows overlooking the river was, as trite as it may sound, truly breathtaking. The giant oak hammock framed the long pier that stretched into the river and nearly faded out of sight into the thick fog that veiled the far shore some two miles across. With that glorious distraction, I had a very difficult time paying attention to the lesson.
We were studying I Corinthians 12 and the question was put to us, “What are your spiritual gifts?” Some modestly answered that they weren’t sure yet what gifts God had given them. I immediately knew my answer – teaching. I didn’t mean that in such an arrogant way as to mean that I am some unusually exceptional teacher. There are many who are as good at the game as I am, and many better. I did mean the answer as a confident statement of my certainty that many years ago God led me to the ministry of teaching school. Simply, proudly and humbly, I know God has a purpose for me. I learn that purpose better every day.
We were next asked to take a few minutes of quiet time by the river to consider our spiritual gifts. Since I was already confident in mine I thought this might be a bit of a waste of time, except that the scenery was beautiful. So I would enjoy passing the time with that. The only thought that kept reoccurring to me was that sometimes in my teaching job I become so busy that I forget to allow God to lead me. But all Christians confess that human fallacy at some point – if they’re honest with themselves. So, I didn’t give it any more thought. But then, what message was I to receive?
Then, while standing on the riverbank looking at the various things that had washed up, I found an old RC Cola bottle. I have since my youth enjoyed collecting old soft drink bottles. The date on the bottom of this one was ’71, 32 years old. I was about 11 years old when it had been cast away. Now it had washed ashore and become tangled in the brush and roots around one of the giant oak trees. The years had been remarkably kind to this old bottle. There was not as much as a chip in the glass. But, the RC label was now partially faded, it was dirty, and, it was empty. While looking at it I literally laughed to myself thinking, “Sure, God has sent me a message in a bottle.” But there was, of course, no message inside of it.
I continued thinking about that though. Many thoughts ran through my head. Could there be something here? I first thought about how my Dad used to enjoy an RC Cola and a Moon Pie. I didn’t see as much as a Moon Pie wrapper lying around though. I then thought more about my Dad. He was a truck driver and died in an on-the-job accident in 1979. Still looking for a message from God, I thought, “There’s no connection to the date though”. But in 1971 he drove for a company named RC Motor Lines. But those thoughts simply brought back pleasant memories of him. I didn’t see much “message” in those facts.
Then the thought occurred. The bottle is a vessel, much like we are vessels. A bottle holds and carries liquid. But I still couldn’t get the message. I decided to go back inside to look up some scripture. In the few minutes I had I couldn’t find anything about a vessel. Then the word jar came to me, and using the concordance in the back of my Bible, I went to II Corinthians 4: 5-9. There, Paul says,
“For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 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. We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted; but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in us the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
Finally, I was able to see God’s message. It was not a message inside the bottle, but instead, it was a message in the bottle itself. That bottle had once been a vessel for a soft drink. It had a purpose. It was well made for that purpose – thick, colored, textured glass; simple but effective name and label, and room inside for a full 16 ounces of sweet refreshing RC Cola. It was a wonder of modern technology and marketing and did its job very well. But one day, someone bought that RC Cola, opened the bottle, drank the drink and without a thought threw the bottle into the river somewhere way upstream. So from that time, sometime back in the early 1970’s, the bottle had served, what appeared to be nothing more than a useless purpose. In fact, it did nothing more than litter God’s beautiful earth. It had been pressed by the current, “but not crushed”. It had been mired in the silt deep below the water surface, “but was not in despair”. It had been thrown away by its owner, but “not abandoned” by God. And that old bottle had certainly been “struck down” by driftwood, boats, or other stuff in the current, but it “was not destroyed”. Then the current, wind, and, most of all, God’s will washed it ashore, there beside Marywood Conference Center. Suddenly, it again had a purpose. Despite the fact that it was now old, faded and empty, it once again had a purpose. This time a much greater purpose. It was now a vessel for God’s message.
The message delivered to me that day by that simple old bottle was anything but simple. It is as old as Adam himself and ever so profound. When we come to those low points in life, like that old bottle, and think that we have no more purpose to serve; when we, like that old bottle, grow tired, dirty and empty feeling; like He did for that old bottle, God still has a purpose for us. Though we be but brittle old “jars of clay” God looks out for us, protects us and delivers us. Because, instead of being all washed up, we have simply washed ashore so “that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
Now is the time for us to come ashore and be God’s vessel.
Lord, make me a worthy vessel. Take my human weaknesses, frailties and limitations and use them for your will, your purpose and your miraculous grace.
In Jesus’ name and for Your glory, amen.
By: Jimmy Lee
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