We Are Jars

What is going on in these bodies of ours? Some of us work very hard to make them look better. Some eat all of the right foods, get the right amount of exercise, and try to get enough sleep so that we will feel good and have strength to do what we want to do. Most people want to live long and well. But if the truth be known and accepted we know that the process going on in our bodies is that of dying. Day by day we are all wasting away. All of us have the same terminal illness, death.

We should have expected nothing less because we are made of dirt. The Apostle Paul says that we are jars of clay. As we age we become cracked, chipped, and maybe even have a few holes knocked in us. Paul also says that we, jars of clay, have within us great treasures. Jesus said that we are also  light. Despite the fact that we are wasting away each of us are valuable because of what we hold inside. The treasure within us is the glory of God himself. It is not our glory, nor does it have its origin from anything that we have made ourselves. God's glory was placed in us when we accepted Jesus as our Savior. God's glory was put in us so that we might show the world God's "all-surpassing power".

Just one more thought: Those chips, cracks, and holes in us, mortal clay jars, are there because of what living life in a fallen world has done to us. We have experienced some hard times, but each of those experiences were meant to bring us closer to God. One reason for this was so that the light that is in us through Jesus Christ can shine through our cracks, our chips and holes. These mortal jars of clay, therefore, become bright lamps in a dark world pointing the lost to Jesus.

2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.