REFLECTIONS

Jars of Clay

Traveling near the northwestern edge of the Dead Sea, the parched look of sandstone hillsides was enough to dry almost anyone’s mouth. The only magnetisms to them were small cave openings dotting the cliffsides. The area located around the caves of Qumran was once home for an ascetic sect of Hebrews dedicated to belief in the Bible as the word of God. They are said to have had someone reading the Bible 24 hours a day.

In the late 1940’s and early 50’s, exploration of the caves of Qumran led to the discovery of unexpected treasures. Inside, explorers discovered numerous old jars of clay. Protected inside them they found biblical manuscripts, written on papyrus and parchments, we know today as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Consensus dates them to the last three centuries BCE. Before the discovery the oldest scripture found dated to 10 CE. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls pushed back a thousand years the date of the oldest scripture manuscripts found.

For all those years, those old jars of clay did nothing but hold inside them their antiquity treasures, so someday they could be shared with the world.

Now this may seem like a stretch, but an adage says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Some of us older ones might object believing we can indeed learn new things. The problem is in doing them within these old clay jars that house our souls. As Jesus said, “… no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And for me, here is the best part: And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for he says, ‘The old is better.'” (Luke 5:37-39)

Age does take its toll on performance, even in doing what once was done with ease. New things may be learned, but execution is another matter altogether. But whether a new wineskin or an old jar of clay…

Treasure is found not so much by what one does as by what is held inside.

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

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