The Golden Vessel

Resting. So often resting. Is this healthy? Is it worthwhile? Useful at all? This is a beautiful house. So large. I know the Master has placed me here. He has placed such beautiful purple velvet over me. Clean. Pristine. Stately. A most honored covering.

But I’m often quiet and still. Just waiting on Him. Just here in my purple. If I listen very closely, I can hear the jostling of cabinet doors and the bustle of activity in the nearby pantry. It seems there is the clattering and clanking of cups and saucers and bowls. Someone rushes with paper towels to clean up a spill. Someone else pours water, and I hear servers passing it out to what seems to be a crowd. Oh the hubbub.

I’d like to be a part of it — sometimes.  But it’s quiet and safe here. Others around me wait too. The Master comes from time to time to make sure that we are clean and orderly and prepared. Oh how I love His visits. He sits with us in the quiet and we are comforted. How we shine with His loving touch. His dignity seems to rub off on us.

Every now and then, like today, He gently pulls back our purple veil and selects one of us. Is today my day? I have waited so long. Oh yes, I sense that He is gently lifting me up. Out of rest. Out of quiet. This is my day.

Oh, oh what a regal scene! Kings are here. Queens are here. Their attendants dote on them. Oh the regalia! The royalty! Am I fit to be here? The Master places me carefully on the table, and the guests ooh and ahh at me. I glance toward the kitchen, and I see many other vessels full of this and that, being used for pouring and measuring and storing things. It seems that every day they are being used for something.

I am rarely even seen, so why honor me? I am just a vessel set aside for the Master’s use. I didn’t know that the rest and stillness were preparing me for this great moment. The Master pours something very rare into me, and each princely guest takes of the riches, treasuring them and transporting them back to his corner of the earth. He has allowed me hold such riches. What an honor.

Soon the guests leave, and the Master gently cleanses me and covers me again with the purple velvet. I gladly return to the stillness. What a joy to be chosen to serve royalty, but honestly, I love the stillness.

2 Timothy 2:20-21 (ESV) Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

Luke 10:42 (ESV) …but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.