I took a little trip to Tifton (with Susan Gayle Andrews and Sandra Colquitt Hanna Bennett) to purchase a set of silverware to complete a 16 piece place setting (for all those big dinner parties for one that I have), and the lady also included these silver trays. She said these all belonged to her grandmother, but they had been stored under her bed for years. She didn’t have a use for them, so she just decided to sell them. I consider them a blessing from the Lord because I paid 1/3 of what I paid for the first set of flatware just a few months ago.
When I got home tonight and looked at the flatware and the trays, they were so tarnished!! They were dull and black. They had been neglected for so long. No love was shown to them. They had lost their purpose and their shine. They had basically been discarded and forgotten about. Have you ever been there? Have you ever lost your purpose and your shine? Have you felt discarded and forgotten, or even unloved and neglected? Have you ever looked at yourself and all you see is the tarnish of sin? You’ve lost the shine and the sparkle that God gave you because of bad choices and decisions? Well, just as I saw with these silver trays tonight, there is HOPE!!
I applied some TarnX to these silver trays and removed the black tarnish and rinsed them with a little water. They were restored to their brilliancy!! They shine, they look inviting, they look ready to serve!! That’s what happens when we come to the foot of the cross. We come to Jesus all black and tarnished. He takes a drop of His blood and cleanses all the filth from us, removes all the blackness and tarnish of sin, and He restores us!! We once again shine and sparkle just like He intended us to and gives us new purpose and renewed passions. We begin to serve others and are inviting! Just like I will have to do with this silver periodically, we will have to keep coming back to the cross to be cleansed as we walk through this journey called life.
We will never be perfect until we have our glorified bodies in heaven, so we will always need to come back to the cross, ask forgiveness and allow the blood to cleanse the tarnished places of sin. I’m so thankful tonight that the Lord did not leave me in my black, tarnished, dull condition, but He forgave me and polished me so that I can shine for Him!!
