On Display

Tomorrow, March 2, is National Old Stuff Day, so I’ll share just two of the many old things we’ve got displayed around our house.

These pitchers belonged to my grandfather’s mother, whose name was Pearl. Pearl had three children with her first husband before he died. She then married John, who already had nine children. Pearl and John then had five more children. I don’t know how spaced apart those 17 children were, but that sounds to my mind like one noisy house!!!

My grandfather was born in 1915, part of the last set of five children. The story handed down with these pitchers is that the family had a cow to provide milk for all of those mouths. The white pitcher was for milk and the flower pitcher was used for cream.

The only thing I use them for these days is to hold big bouquets of flowers that I cut from around my yard. It’s strange that they hold such sentimental value from a time so long before I was even born! I never met my great grandmother, but somehow these pitchers help bring her to life in my mind’s eye. They have been enduring evidence of the life she led as a mother of many.

My great grandmother’s pitchers come with a story that fills them with meaning (to me, anyway!).

Future Display

There is another display mentioned in the Bible.

But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:4-7 NLT

Did you catch that?

The Berean Study Bible translates verses six and seven of the same passage this way: “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”

We don’t know how soon the “future ages” will be. But when it arrives, we will be on display! Not because of our own wonderful selves, but so that we can be the evidence of God’s mercy, love, kindness and grace.

Are you a follower of Christ? No matter how things look today, you have an incredible purpose before you. Your life is filled with meaning because you are evidence of God’s mighty work of salvation!

We don’t have to wait!

We will be on display in the future ages, but we are already on display now! Read what Paul writes in chapter three:

God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ephesians 3:10-11 NLT

Through our active commitment to our local church body, we become evidence of God’s wisdom. We might not see it, but the “unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” are scratching their heads in wonder at this incredible feat of Christian unity!

“How can there possibly be true fellowship among people of such different backgrounds, economic stations, cultures, and political leanings?? It just can’t be!”

Oh, but it can be. It is possible. God has declared and made it to be so!

As we learn to live and grow as children of God, we develop love and humility for our brothers and sisters. The outflow of that love and humility brings unity in the body of Christ. That unity is mind-boggling for anyone looking in from the outside!

But again, the church is filled with meaning not because she is beautiful in her own right. She is evidence of the many diverse elements of God’s wisdom that have been at work from before the beginning of time itself.

Are you an active part of your local church? Do you serve your brothers and sisters in humility and love? Know that your pursuit of unity in the Body of Christ does not go unnoticed.

Are you willing to be displayed?