Pieter asked me to lead a memorial service on the farm for one of the farm workers. The worker had accompanied them to a show in Port Elizabeth and had to hold two horses. The two horses started moving around and one kicked the other. Unfortunately, the worker was caught between the two horses and the kick hit him on the heart.

As we were standing at the stables looking out at the beautiful vineyards, it was as if the Lord brought me, the farm manager, the owner and the few other farmworkers to a standstill in the midst of that busy day and said: Make sure that your life is in order and that you’ve done what God has called you to do. The scripture was 1 Corinthians 7:17 And don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God’s place for you.

Afterwards, one of the women said that is exactly what Nado had done. He not only knew the Lord, he also did exactly that. He was a bowl, a tool, that God could use. He wasn’t just a disposable bowl not really suitable for what it had been designed to do. No, he was an expensive bowl, suitable to do the best work only.

And you? What does your bowl look like?

²⁰In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets—some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. ²¹Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.

And you? What does your bowl look like?

This is not a difficult part. It’s actually very simple. Is your bowl suitable for the work that your owner wants to do with you? Or is your bowl so filled with sin that the owner cannot or even doesn’t want to use it. The bad-looking bowl so embarrasses the owner that it is pushed right to the back of the cupboard.

And you? What does your bowl look like?

God wants to use you. He created you as a beautiful golden bowl. But we allow sin to cover us and now we’re not looking so good.

Fortunately, there is a big can of Brasso that wants to clean and polish you – it’s red. You must simply go to your owner and confess your sin. Then the red blood Brasso will make you shine again so that God, your owner, can use you again with a big smile on his face.

Then, when God fetches you, maybe as unexpectedly as for Nado, you will know inside you that you’ve been used again and again, because God kept you shiny!

Scripture
2 Tim 2:20-21

Reflection
Which bowl are you?
Is your bowl maybe filled with the wrong things?
What prevents you from being a gold or silver bowl?

Prayer
Lord, the way my bowl looks embarrass me. I know You cannot always use me because of the way I look. Therefore, I ask that You please forgive my sin. I will ensure that my bowl is ready for You to use. Amen.