Categories
Devotional Making Disciples

Earthen vessels

Simple earthen vessels. There they are. 

Wading through laws in Leviticus, I see them. In the details. Amid ritual regulations for priests, Levites, and the people of God. 

Earthenware. Photo by Sebastian del Val, Pixabay.

In these particular earthen pots, they boil the sin offering. That only priests may eat. 

Their use is short-lived in the days of the Old Covenant. Bronze bowls can be scrubbed clean. Earthenware can’t. 

Categories
Crossing Cultures Devotional Memoir

How can this be?

“How can this be…?” Mary asks. Stunned. Confused by the angel Gabriel’s announcement. 

How can a virgin conceive and give birth to the Son of the Most High whose kingdom will have no end?

The angel is tender in his response to this young woman. Explaining what will happen. That the Holy Spirit will come upon her. And the power of the Most High will overshadow her. 

Glory to God in the Highest! (Olive wood nativity from Bethlehem)
Categories
Devotional Memoir

Prodigal, part 2

It’s early 2013. Delhi, India. And I’m standing at the bathroom sink. Crying out to the Father. Again.

I can see the marble counter. The dingy mirror. Remember the blur of anguish. Helplessness. 

“What are we to do, Lord? How do we help our son?”

The Lord has already made two things clear to me in that season (as detailed in Prodigal, Part 1). 

1. Wait. Wait on the Lord. 
2. Devote yourself to prayer. 

Now I’m standing on the tile floor, in evening shadows. Pleading.