Ellen Chauvin | Soaked & Sprouting

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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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Closing the Door on Prayer

April 7, 2022 by Ellen Leave a Comment

Have you ever heard of Rhoda? Noooo, not the one from The Mary Tyler Moore television sitcom. Although the way Rhoda acted, it could have been a Biblical sitcom. I’m talking about the Rhoda is from scripture. We can find her in Acts 12.

“He knocked at the door of the outer gate, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer.” Acts 12:13 CSB

Rhoda was with a group of believers at the house of Mary, John Mark’s mom. They were having a fervent prayer meeting, specifically to pray for Peter’s release from prison. As they were praying, an angel of the Lord went to the jail and rescued Peter. His chains fell off and he was free!

Peter then made his way to Mary’s house, where he knocked on the outer gate and Rhoda came to answer. 

But get this: Rhoda didn’t let him in!!

She recognized Peter’s voice, and because of her joy, she did not open the gate but ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the outer gate. Acts 12:14 CSB

I’m sure Rhoda was pretty embarrassed by her comedic performance. But in her joy at Peter’s deliverance and the answer to their prayers, she left him standing outside the gate. I’ve gotta tell you, I would have looked at Rhoda and said “You left the Apostle Peter outside the gate?? Why didn’t you let him in??”

Notice the reaction of her friends. It was in stark contrast to her joy. They couldn’t believe their prayers had been answered so quickly and specifically. 

“You’re out of your mind!” they told her. But she kept insisting that it was true, and they said, “It’s his angel.” Acts 12:15 CSB 

Honestly, I’d like to condemn them for their unbelief. But don’t we sometimes do the same? 

We slam the door on answered prayer. 

When our answered prayers show up at the gate, we leave them there. Maybe it’s unbelief. Or maybe they haven’t been answered the way we wanted. Perhaps the answer involves work that we don’t want to do. Whatever the reason, we close the door to the answer.

“Lord, I see how you answered my prayer. I do need Your help. But what You’re asking me to do is much too hard. I can’t…”

“This can’t possibly be God’s answer! No way!”

“This has got to be a coincidence. I can’t imagine that the Lord would answer my little piddly prayers immediately and specifically.”

But, what if we prayed with great anticipation and expectation?  What if we began looking for God’s answers? And then, what if we squealed with joy and excitement over the answers? What if we couldn’t wait to run and tell others that our prayers had been answered, giving glory to God?

What if?

“Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:24 ESV

Grace be with you,

 

 

 

Do you know Jesus?

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