Old Silver Bowl

Have you ever felt used up, old, and forgotten? Do you see yourself as a vessel that held great value at one time, but is now nothing more than an ancient dish?

So many times we see ourselves with a totally different set of eyes than the ones God gave us at birth. Maybe it is because life changes us and makes us believe things about ourselves that aren’t true. We see ourselves in a cracked, scratched, and foggy mirror thinking that it is us who are cracked, scratched, and foggy. At times, we just assume the mirror is fine and it is us with the issues.

Yes, we have issues, but remember that the mirror (your self-image) may not be reflecting the truth about you.

I tell my wife sometimes, “It is not what you say or think about yourself, it is what I say and think about you that matters.” Now, if I am being an asswipe of a husband, then that is not a good thing to say. I am merely explaining to her that how she sees herself and how I see her are through two totally different set of eyeballs.

God sees you through His eyes. Realize that what you see, your perception of yourself and your situation, may be totally off like a cracked mirror. There is a time and a place for being honest and real with yourself, but it usually is about your situation and not about who you are as a person.

If you need to change and improve, by all means, get right. Take the steps toward improving your mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. It matters and it should, just know that the person God made is different than the mistakes you made or what happened to you.

In my devotional time today, I started reading Ezra. (Yes, even after 25+ years of being a Christian, I had to check the table of contents to figure out what page it was on…..pray for me)

This book starts out with the account of Cyrus, the king of Persia, calling his peeps to gather up all the stuff that was given to him when Nebuchadnezzar took the people of Israel into bondage in Babylon for 70 years. It was all counted out to a priest of Judah. Something jumped out at me.

It talks about 30 gold dishes, 1,000 silver dishes, 29 silver pans, 30 gold bowls, 410 duplicate silver bowls, and 1000 miscellaneous items.

Duplicate. Just extra. Leftover. Not usually used. Did you catch that?

Why is that such a big deal? To me it makes me feel remembered by God, of value, made mentioned of.

If a duplicate old silver bowl is included in the greatest and most widely printed book of all time, don’t you think that God valued that old silver bowl enough to have it recorded and saved so that over 2000 years later we can still read about it? It’s just an old silver bowl, right?

No. It is so much more than that. It was a part of God’s house that had been destroyed in Jerusalem and is going to be rebuilt soon. It had value. It needed to be accounted for and included in what God is going to do in the future.

You may be at a point in your life where you have no idea what the future holds, there is no value in what you are going through. You may feel like an old silver bowl.

But, oh…..you are God’s precious vessel and he has a place for you in what He is building. He wants you and needs you to be a part of it.

God values you enough to mention something as insignificant as an old bowl to show you how much He values you, His own precious child.

He sees you with heavenly eyes. You do not place your own value, because you are His and He thinks you are priceless!!

Come on, old silver bowl. Let’s go see where you are going next. I heard it is a palace that will be absolutely amazing!!