| But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. |
| —2 Corinthians 4:7 |
She knocked at my classroom door and stood waiting with her mom and older sister. I was overjoyed to see Joanna. Her loving nature had once made her one of my favorite students in the two years that I had known her. But then, her family had suddenly decided to go back to Puerto Rico, and I thought I’d never see her again.
Now she had traveled back for a visit, and wanted to thank me for teaching her. She gave me a tiny pitcher, hand made out of clay, and decorated with a pretty floral design and the words “Puerto Rico.”
How thoughtful of her to remember me and bring me this tiny reminder of her. Every time I look at it, it reminds me of more than Joanna. It reminds me that when I seem as frail as that little pitcher, Christ can show His power within me. Many times I have felt hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down. This little clay pitcher reminds me that even in my frailty, I have the treasure of the glory of God in my life.
Let me remind and encourage each one of us. Whenever our backs and legs ache, our nerves fray, we’ve had sleepless nights, and we have more to do than we can possible handle, let us remember the testimony that the Apostle Paul gives us in this Scripture verse from 2 Corinthians 12:10:
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Yes! Through our times of weakness, God wants to pour out a great blessing on us, and in so doing, reveal His all-surpassing power.