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Tears in a Bottle

April 12, 2023 by Ellen Leave a Comment

 You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. Psalm 56:8 NLT

This is not the life she dreamed for herself. She imagined life with a loving husband by her side. A man who knew her intimately and wanted to share life with her. A husband who would provide for her.

Instead, she lay in bed night after night, never knowing love or compassion. The men who lay with her were nameless.  And faceless. She focused on forgetting their looks, rather than remembering. After all, who wants to remember someone who doesn’t know your name? Oh, they called her things. But never her name. She was know as “sinful” and “immoral.” The men in her life paid her only for what they could get from her. There was no love. No intimacy. No sharing. No life.

Slow tears dripped from the corners of her eyes. They would have dropped to the floor, gone forever, if not for her tear bottle. 

The practice of collecting tears in a bottle has been around since about 1,000 BC. In times of grief and sorrow, ancient tear bottles were to catch and preserve tears of the owner. Archaeologists in Israel have discovered excavated tear bottles. 

Phoenician style Hebron glass from Jericho, Israel.

Scripture mentions tears used to wash the feet of Jesus:

And a woman in the town who was a sinner found out that Jesus was reclining at the table in the Pharisee’s house. She brought an alabaster jar of perfume and stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to wash his feet with her tears. She wiped his feet with her hair, kissing them and anointing them with the perfume. Luke 7:37-38 CSB⁠1

Can a person cry enough tears to wash someone’s feet?  Maybe. If there was a way to collect all the tears. 

Perhaps the sinful woman carried her tear bottle as well as the alabaster jar of costly perfume. She must have cried a river of tears over her sin and the choices she made. Some scholars believe her tears came from the bottle she carried. 

In ancient times, Jewish females were given an alabaster jar of perfume by their parents. Tradition has it that each year a bit more of the costly perfumed oil was added to the jar. The expensive perfume would have served as a dowry or inheritance. 

Alabaster window. Galilee region, Israel

Carrying her tears and perfumed oil, the sinful woman went to hear Jesus speak. She wept in repentance at His words. She poured out her tears in the bottle as an act emptying herself of her old life and starting over. Jesus fulfilled her greatest need. His forgiveness washed her clean. In thankfulness, she anointed His feet with perfumed oil from the alabaster jar. Her new life begins with the fragrant aroma of faith in Jesus to forgive her of her sins. 

-What can we “pour out” of our lives today, to live a life pleasing to Jesus? 

-How can our lives be a fragrant aroma of Christ to others?

Father God, As we empty ourselves of our old way of life, I pray that our new life in Christ will be a sweet aroma to You. In Jesus name and by His power in us, Amen.

Do you know Jesus?

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1 Our tour guide in Israel connected tear bottles with this scripture

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Keep Moving Forward

January 28, 2022 by Ellen 2 Comments

Winter finally rolled into the south – with a vengeance! It was bone chilling cold, windy and dreary. The sun refused to peek out, even for a minute. The day was a burrow-under-the-warm-blanket kind of day. With a good book.

Sadly, I hadn’t exercised in days, and my body was letting me know. The aches and pains of being a slug were screaming at me. Off to the treadmill I went. 

Opting for the high intensity interval program, I started off walking at a snail’s pace. So, I upped the speed. A few minutes later, I realized my mistake: increasing the speed at the beginning, also increased it for the full workout. I was actually having to run instead of simply walking briskly. Horrors!! I couldn’t catch my breath. I was ready to quit and crawl back under my warm blanket.

Suddenly, in my flailing run, my arm hit the emergency cord and pulled it out of it’s socket. The treadmill stopped. Finally!  Exercise is hard work, and I was tired. Now was my chance! I could stop.

Or, I could keep moving forward. 

My spiritual walk can be like that at times. I childishly think I’ve served enough. Shouldn’t the younger folks take over now? Can’t I just be a pew sitter again? I obstinately will not sprout and grow, opting to hide underground instead. I just want to coast.

It isn’t just me. I think we all go through those times of spiritual laziness, when we just don’t want to move. We’re comfortable. We’re lazy. We’re slothful.

Scripture warns us against against this:

   “so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Hebrews 6:12 ESV

Sluggish means lazy, slothful, slow and apathetic. It’s as dangerous in our walk as being lukewarm or spiritually fatigued. Maybe even more so, because it’s a choice we make. That day on the treadmill, I chose to continue. I was taking care of my physical health. 

On the other hand, when we choose spiritual sluggishness, we become stagnant. We’re not moving forward in our walk with Jesus. We’re remaining immature. 

How do we avoid becoming sluggish? Well, it isn’t about adding more to our spiritual to do list. It isn’t about doing at all. It’s about becoming. 

The author of the book of Hebrews was encouraging the recipients of the letter to continue to grow and progress in their faith, to persevere until the end. How?

“And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end” Hebrews 6:11 ESV

Earnestness, or diligence is used in this verse to infer moving toward something. We grow and progress forward in our faith by moving toward Jesus. The closer we get to Jesus, the more we are being transformed into His image. We become spiritually mature and heavenly minded. Through faith and patience, we inherit God’s promises.

God will carry us along to maturity. But as believers, we also have to do our part. We have to put one foot in front of the other to move forward, not back. Becoming spiritually stronger, we’ll be able to stay the course and finish the race God set before us.

-What hinders your spiritual growth?

-What can you do to continue to move forward?

-Are you moving from spiritual milk to solid food (Hebrews 5:12, 1 Peter 2:2)?

 

 

 

We become what we behold.  ~William Blake

Until next time,

Ellen

Do you know Jesus?

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