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Rags

The other day I was cooking dinner and needed to pull something from the oven. Seeing no pot holder handy, I grabbed a dish towel to use instead. As often happens, a simple act brought back a flood of memories. I remembered watching my sweet grandmother, Mammy, do that a thousand times. I don’t remember her ever having a collection of “pretty” dish towels or pot holders. If she did, she was saving them! They weren’t the ones she reached for to do the job. She typically grabbed hot things with either the bottom of her apron or used one of her well worn rags as she called them. We used to laughing say she had “asbestos hands”. Mammy used, washed, and reused rags for everything. They weren’t pretty, but they served a multitude of purposes very well. What looked like rags became something much more in her precious hands,


I got to thinking how like those rags we are, not pretty, nothing special, but in the right hands for the right purpose, very functional and quite valuable. In and of ourselves, we are helpless, weak, sinful, and without hope. But in the hands of the Master, we become something quite different, lovely, useful, and serving a great purpose. Like Mammy’s rags, God always chose the most unlikely people to accomplish his work. His delegates included some with hot tempers, whining attitudes, no self confidence, and yes even the sinful. Among those He used to show his glory were a mumbling, unsure, shepherd, a persecutor of Christians, a young boy hated by his brothers and sold into slavery, and even a harlot. He continues to do just that still today.


We have nothing that the King of the Universe needs! We have nothing to offer, except our willingness to be used by Him. If we are willing, God can do marvelous things with us. We become his hands and feet delivering love, compassion, healing, hope, and the good news of salvation thru his Son. We may look and feel unworthy, unlikely, and empty, but that is when and where God shows out! Praise God that He can use even me.


Isaiah 64:8 Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter, we are the work of your hand.


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