Meaning in the Mundane: Containers

You’ve probably got some in a drawer in your kitchen.

They’re all different sizes, so they won’t stack neatly.

Many of them are stained with a tinge of red, scratched, or even cracked.

A few have no matching lid, and even more lids have no matching container – but you hold onto them, just in case.

They’re not pretty, but useful for storing things.

You guessed it. Tupperware.

Actually, I don’t have any real Tupperware in my kitchen drawer, mostly just unbranded plastic tubs. A plastic tub (especially an unbranded one) is a very mundane thing. It is also a modern equivalent for the “pots of clay” referred to in the Bible.

2 Corinthians 4:7 says ‘But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.’

In the above verse, Paul isn’t talking about arty clay pots filled with eucalyptus leaves and pussy willow that you might find in a boutique shop. He’s most likely referring to simple, straightforward, containers readily and cheaply available during that time.

Like plastic tubs, clay jars were useful, not so much for decoration, but for what they could hold. They might have been stained or chipped, and they were easy to break.

Like those clay pots, and like plastic boxes, we too are all a bit stained. We have flaws, and cracks, and sometimes feel close to breaking. What gives us value, though, is what we have inside us.

If you are a follower of Jesus, however flawed you are, you have the power and glory of God working in and through you. God’s power can turn an ordinary stick into a snake (Exodus 4:2-3) and a small snack into a feast to feed thousands (Matthew 14:17-19). He doesn’t need a perfect person to do a mighty work, just a person willing to invite him inside.

If God is at work within us, our very cracks and flaws allow His glory to seep and shine out.

In the words of Andrew J. Wilson, in his book God of All Things: Rediscovering the Sacred in an Everyday World:

‘We are unimpressive, unexceptional vessels… Our lives and ministries are given eternal significance by the surpassing worth of the cargo we carry.’

The Tupperware analogy falls apart slightly, when you think about how they’re made. Clay pots were hand formed. And God does not just fill us up. He caringly moulds and shapes us, healing our cracks and piecing us back together when we break.

Nevertheless, I hope you’ll remember these thoughts the next time you’re filling up a plastic tub with left over [insert food item here].

You are deeply loved and eternally significant in the hands of the Creator working within you.

Eggs

When you crack open the shell of an egg, the contents are nothing short of amazing.

They are one of the most nutritious foods on the planet, packed with protein, healthy fats and nutrients.

An egg contains everything needed to grow a single cell into a fluffy chick.

In the build up to Easter last year, the children and I spent a few weeks learning about birds and their eggs.

It coincided with a keen interest in The Twitchers series by MG Leonard. Every car journey, her audio books went on. They were a great way of gently introducing all kinds of bird facts to the children.

I also want to take a moment to say how grateful I am to MG Leonard. As part of our English curriculum my children all wrote fan letters. Five letters were sent, some to football clubs, and one to a Disney character. However, we only received one reply, and that was from MG Leonard. And it was a thoughtful, personal, reply.

It was particularly significant because my daughter, who sent the fan letter, had been struggling with her reading. The personal encouragement, from the author of her favourite book, to keep reading, and even providing recommendations of books she might enjoy, meant a lot to her, and me.

Apart from listening to the Twitchers series, we looked at a few other books.

One was Bird Count, which we studied using a Five in a Row mini unit study. We started this at the end of January (instead of the recommended month, December) to coincide with the Big Garden Bird Count in the UK, which the RSPB organise each year.

When we finished our unit study of the book, we spent an hour in the garden recording what we saw, and sent our observations to the RSPB.

Lots of science experiments were done alongside our studies. We dissolved eggshells in vinegar till we were left with just the membrane, and made (very fragile!) bouncy balls.

We used the beautiful book ‘Nests, Eggs, Birds – An Illustrated Aviary‘ by Kelsey Oseid, to learn what the egg is made of, and looked at a small piece of membrane through our microscope.

We also experimented with colouring boiled eggs to create an arty snack.

With some empty half eggshells, we grew crystals from Epsom salts and food colouring dissolved in water, to make our own geodes.

Closer to Easter we read Rechenka’s Eggs. Then we all had a go at blowing eggs and painting the shells.

Of course we did some of the usual Easter baking too, making chocolate nests. However, we added a little educational twist to it. The children looked up bird eggs to see if they could identify what type of eggs they had in their nest. It wasn’t easy to get perfect matches with mini eggs, but it was quite fun trying. It was amazing to see the variety of colours and markings there are.

Whether you have time to eggs-periment over the holidays, or just enjoy a bit of extra time off, I hope and pray that ‘Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith’ (Ephesians 3:17) this Easter and always.