1. ||A worthless penny for a priceless vase…

    I recently read the book, “Full Surrender” by J. Edwin Orr. It is an older book, copyright 1951, but it carries a very relevant word for our generation. The overall theme of the book, is just as the title suggests, “surrendering yourself fully to Jesus”. Within this theme, Orr picks out specific subjects to write about.

    At the end of the book, Orr shares with the reader his testimony. He tells of his mother, his conversion, and then he tells of a very special time where the Lord revealed to him the need to give up a love affair that was hindering his relationship with Jesus. He describes it by using a story, and the story goes like this.

    In case someone may feel that this was a lot of unnecessary fuss over an adolescent love affair, the following story may illustrate the imporance of petty things.

    A young businessman received an urgent phone call from his wife, and came home by taxi, expecting the worst about his six-year-old boy. Sure enough, the doctor’s car was at the door, but it was not so tragic as anticipated. Little Johnny had put his little fist inside a precious Chinese vase, and could not get it out without smashing the work of art. The mother and the doctor wanted permission from the father to break the vase. Not on any account, said the exasperated father, protesting how much he had paid for the vase. But cold water and olive oil and all other methods failed to permit Johnny to withdraw his hand, so, as the mother pointed out that their beloved child sould not be expected to go through life with a base on his hand, the father gave a reluctant assent to the use of a hammer. It was at that point that young Johnny asked if it would help matters were he to drop his penny. The little rascal had been willing to let his parents smash a work of beauty in order that he might keep his grubby little fist around a miserable little penny which had been dropped within the vase!

    I too was willing to let my Heavenly Father smash the vessel He had prepared for my life in order to keep my fist tight on an adolescent token of love.

    A powerful story that packs a powerful message. All too often we are too stubborn, prideful, or selfish to smash the “valuable vase” that God has prepared for us because we are not willing to let go of the “worthless penny” in our lives. We can not let these “pennies” or sins, struggles, or temptations become valuable in our lives and lose out on what is truly valuable. What is it that you are holding onto today? What worries, doubts, struggles, sins are you grasping? Are you in danger of smashing what God has prepared for you?

    David

    2. 11 months ago  Notes (0)