My chick chicks love fruit, especially watermelon. Now it is too expensive to buy for them, but every now and again we’ve bought a watermelon on a super busy week. You know those weeks when you just can’t find time to do one more thing, even cut up a watermelon? There’s lesson number one – examine my life to see if it’s too jammed packed to cut up a watermelon, and if it is, why do I do that? If it’s too busy for a watermelon, am I too busy for really important things? Anyway, when the watermelon starts to turn, we slice it in halves and put it out for the girls to enjoy. Another lesson – waste not, want not.
As I write, lots of lessons are coming to my mind – isn’t God good – teaching me through a watermelon. Who’d a thought? Anyway, where was I? It is amazing to me how my chicks peck away at that watermelon, all the way down to the skin scooping out every bit of meat without ever piercing the skin, or the rind. It reminds me a little of what can happen when we sincerely pray the prayer – Cleanse my heart O God…He picks away at everything, completely cleaning out my life leaving it empty. Leaving a shell, a vessel, to which He can pour into Living Water.
So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.
Jeremiah 18:3
Isn’t that a beautiful image? The Lord forming, creating, molding, shaping us into containers? Containers to hold The Word, Jesus. A vessel to hold Living Water.
Yet, O Lord, you are the Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
Isaiah 64:8
He is the Potter. We are the clay. He is forming and working. He is hulling out, creating a vessel that He can use.
I’ve been watching this watermelon for over a week. Although its edges are shriveled a little from the sun, amazingly enough, this vessel still holds water. I wonder…Can I hold water? Can you hold water? Can we bear up? Can we be used?
If you keep yourself pure, you will be a utensil God can use for his purpose. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.
2 Timothy 2:21
God does not shape us for uselessness. He is a God of purpose. We are made in His image. We are vessels made to be used by Him.
You may never look at a watermelon in the same way again! It’s all about practicing His Presence, turning every aspect, every thought, no matter how large or small, to Him.