Easter Eggs in Jars of Clay

Last night my brother, Kit, made me go out sharing with him. Him and my other brother Ken got together with 4 other friends to drive to Storm Lake and just share the Gospel with people. 
Now, I've done that kind of sharing many times myself and so you'd think I'd be excited and confident and absolutely passionate about going. 
Mmm...sadly I think my attitude changed while I was at school. My freshman year of college I joined an outreach team with the student ministry in which I was involved. I joined absolutely excited to get out there and go sharing like I've been taught to do... unfortunately.. that wasn't the structure of that outreach team. I soon learned that being on the outreach team meant sitting around a table and talking about ideas of maybe reaching out... but not necessarily going and doing. I allowed that apathetic attitude into my own heart of hearts and it has been quite the disease to battle against since then. (Let that be a warning to you.. don't let other's attitudes of apathy become that of your own.) 
So anyways.. I didn't really *want* to go sharing. I mean.. i knew it was the right thing to do and I knew I would regret not going.. but I just... ugh.. didn't want to go. 


My father had needed my help in the garden and so I was wearing my dirty garden clothes and was all about getting ready to get some dirt under my nails as I planted potatoes. Kit came out and was like "My friends will be here in 5 minutes, go change now." (Bossy...)
So... I complied, got dressed, grabbed some Gospel tracts on my way out and the 7 of us drove to Storm Lake to tell people about the most happiest thing they could ever know. Upon arriving at a park and hopping out into the perfectly calm, warm evening air, one of the guys made the comment, "First praise of the night: it's supposed to be raining right now." Kit responded with, "Yeah... my dad said there was a 90% chance of rain."  So we took it as a sign that God wanted us there. 
We prayed together and split up and, as one of my partners said, went hunting for "victims." 
After walking a bit, myself and my 2 partners came along a young fellow in one of the parks and we struck up a conversation. He believed in God but didn't know how to get to heaven and just was hoping that his good works and going to church and stuff would be good enough for God to let him in. I asked him if there was a way to be absolutely sure he was going to heaven when he did would he want  to know it and his response was, "Heck yes, I would!" Perfect. 
We had a good long talk with him about how works aren't good enough and we aren't good enough but God provided a solution for all that. He didn't make any definite decision right there in front of us, but i have a feeling God is doing a crazy good work in him and he definitely took a step closer to the Kingdom which is an absolute win! 


The evening went well and we had some good stories to share by the end of it. On our walk back to our vehicle, I was talking to my friend Madison who is an absolute stud when it comes to loving Jesus. You wanna talk about passion.. this guy is 16 years old and has been obediently reaching out to people around him, leading his peers in Bible studies, and in absolute humility has been a beacon of light and love to those around him. Anyways, Madison and I were talking about ministry opportunities that were coming up and it went something like this:


M-"You should tell (them) about someone."


F- "oh yeah?"


M-"Yeah, starts with a 'J'.. and it's a man"




F- "Oh!!! I'm in love with a man whose name start's with a 'J'!"


M- "Me too!!!"


F- "Yeah, his name is Jesus."


M- "I'm in love with Jesus too!"


F- "Well he's mine."


M- "no, he's mine!"


F- "Well, I'm His. And so that makes him more mine."


M- "I'm his too, so He's mine too."


F- "*gasp* We could share him!"


M- "No! He can't be divided"


F- "We can't share him?? With others and each other?"


M- "No.. I mean.. *you* can have Him and *I* can have him but we both have ALL of Him because He is infinite and can't be split up. And we can share him with others.. like tell them about Him.. but we can't all just have a little piece of Him." 


F-"Oh!! So like the gift that keeps on giving??"


M- "Yes!!"


F- "So THAT'S why in the Bible God has the story about the widow with the jars of oil! Because she has  a little bit of oil and she keeps pouring it and pouring it to other jars and she fills up the other jars and there aren't enough jars and she still has oil left over. It's an example of Jesus, right?"


M- "Yes!! I've never thought of that! That's awesome!!"


F- "Same with the bread and fishes when Jesus fed the 5,000? They have a little food and they pass it out and pass it out and everyone has enough and they have so much left over after they've given everyone enough to satisfy them." 


M-"Yeah!!! God is so awesome. I've never noticed that before!"


F- "Me either!! The Bible has easter eggs!"


That.. was I think one of the best parts of my evening. I love it when God randomly reveals stuff to us that we never noticed before. Granted.. I'm sure scholars have noticed that already and have written books about it.. but I just LOVE how the Holy Spirit just moved in us and opened our eyes to see stuff that we hadn't noticed before. I mean.. the story of the widow with the jars of oil that never ran out is a really cool story, but I never really understood the significance I don't think. 


Even as I write this, I looked up and there on my shelf sits a clay jar that I was given from arts festival and I have written on the front of it, "But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." 2 Cor. 4:7