Today as I cooked the first meal of the New Year, Mackenzie set the table. Delicately placed china rested atop golden chargers with a dozen silver tea lights brightening the room. It may not have matched perfectly, but Mackenzie was proud and that made it beautiful.
I have thought about replacing it. Even looked for a new one. But nothing has the features of this one. And I just don't trust a new one.
This pot and I have been through a lot together. I learned to cook a mean roast in this pot. I have used it to prepare meals for friends who have lost love ones in hopes the effort would sooth their hunger and their heart. Warm meals from this pot have been shared dozens of times with Lance's extended family as we honor our commitment of staying close despite the absence of a matriarch. And this pot created the celebratory sustenance for many holidays and special occasions.
When I looked at this pot today, I thought of myself.
In many ways I am like this pot. I am broken and worn.
God knows that. He knows all about me. All about my weaknesses and shortcomings. Yet He loves me, and He wants to use me. And when He does, the outcome is fragrant and pleasing to Him, not because of my ability but because He makes beauty out of ashes.
As we embark on a New Year, I want 2015 to be one that I am used by God. So my resolution this year isn't about what I can do, but about what God can do through me. My goal is to surrender my control and be ready to be used because I serve a God who can accomplish beautiful things through broken people.
Promise for today:
Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21