Life as a bowl?

On the coffee table in my home is a glass bowl that my wife has filled with various objects from nature and sprinkled with a sweet smelling fragrance. It looks handsome with its vibrant red and yellow hues mixed together with the muted tones of brown and grey. In the quiet of the mornings, with a cup coffee in my hand and a Bible on my knees, my thoughts are often drawn to the bowl.

That little bowl, placed by a master’s hands, filled by that same master with a tantalizing aroma and an inner beauty; all of which work together to draw my attention, causing me to consider my wife’s wonderfully artistic hand. At the same time, the arrangement brings together the entire room in a pleasant display of color.

In reflection, I began to consider our role as children of God. Philippians 2:13-15 tells us God works in us both “to will and to do of his good pleasure.” So we ought to allow ourselves to be used without arguing and complaining allowing us to be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom we shine as lights in the world.

If it is God who has filled his children with the satisfying presence of the Holy Spirit and placed us in a particular setting and told us to shine as lights in this dark world in such a way so as to draw its gaze for his glory, then why are we so fearful to do so? It would have been a strange thing indeed for my wife to have gone to all that trouble and expense just to place the bowl under a basket.

Our lives are to be a living sacrifice, to shine for our Lord, as his sent ones, his royal ambassadors, a tabernacle traveling through the wilderness. Let’s not forget that we are his workmanship created in his image to fulfill his mission. That is not something that happens once a week at church, it is a life lived for his glory that seasons the world with his love. As a bowl filled with his sweet fragrance that penetrates to even the darkest corners of the globe, we are his church. Brothers and sisters, let’s not fear for He is with us!

Brian Dodson