Unshackled Moments ~ March 26, 2018 ~ Treasures Not Seconds

As part of my recent birthday haul. I ordered a grab bag of ten seconds from the Missouri Meerschaum Company. Now for those unfamiliar with Missouri Meerschaum, I didn't order a random assortment of small units of time. These are corn cob pipes. Missouri Meerschaum makes the best corn cob pipes, and while they don't look as artistic or sophisticated as an

Konstantin Shekita: Pierced Lattice Freehand, they are great little smokers at an affordable price. I have one that is still going after several years. Since I don't have two grand to spend on a  hand carved Japanese work of art, and wouldn't buy one if I did, it's nice to have a pipe that I can smoke when I'm outside working or feeding the dogs or fishing or...that I won't feel like crying if I accidentally break it.

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my order, and one of the first things I did this morning was to take a peak at the package tracking. It should arrive tomorrow (actually, since I am writing on Friday for Monday, it should already have arrived as you read this). As I mentioned at the beginning, these are seconds, which are items with definite defects which prevent the manufacturer from selling them to their first-line customers, but they are supposed to be smokable. I read the reviews, and it seems to be a true grab bag, with some getting an awesome selection, and others, not so much, but people have said that 8-10 in each bag were of good enough quality to use. That's all I'm counting on, but I'm hoping to get lucky and get

a Wizard Cobbit Corn Cob Pipe, or really anything from the Cobbit collection. Now, it may seem odd, especially to first time readers, for a preacher to be writing about the pipes he's ordered and is waiting on in a devotional. But there is a Godly point and purpose to this.

I spent a little time this morning thinking about the concept of seconds and wondering what kind of shape these will be in. It's exciting and scary at the same time, because I spent all of my birthday money on a grab bag. They are all supposed to be usable, but I don't know what I'll get, and it's not like they're going to throw in a beautiful hand carved briar, and even the cobs they send are not up to the company's rigid quality standards.

Personally, I feel like a second some days. I have definite defects which cause me to be appraised at far below my Creator's standards. With my flaws and past, I don't even rise to the level of society's standards, or my own for that matter. If I were for sell, I wouldn't want to buy me. But God did! All of us are seconds. We have all come short of the standard of quality and perfection. Yet, we have been purchased with a great price. Daddy wanted us to be His so much that He redeemed us, bought us from our captivity and slavery, and we weren't part of a bargain grab bag.

God knew exactly what He was getting with each and every one of us. Every flaw we have is better known to Him than to us. He knows all the ways we have fallen short of the standard, as well as the ways we will fall short in the future. And yet, He desired us above all else and considers us a great treasure. He wasn't bargain hunting. Daddy sent His Son to pay the price for us. The Son willingly came and gave His very life in place of ours to set us free to have relationship and to close the gap between us and God. The Spirit anointed the Son with the power to do what we were always supposed to do but couldn't, to live the standard of perfect love, but didn't use that power to spare Jesus the suffering and death of the cross.

The reason the angels rejoice when any one of us comes into relationship with Daddy, is that we are not worthless. We are not defective. We are not seconds, no matter how we may feel or seem to ourselves and others. Daddy is checking our tracking constantly with eager anticipation of the moment we will say yes to the Spirit calling us to come and turn to toward Him through the acceptance of the price Jesus paid. We are the Master Artist's workmanship, the creation that is designed to best reflect His awesome glory. And while we have been broken and damaged by the curse of this world, He who created us is eager to restore us to the beautiful, whole, work of art we were always meant to be. He paid a great price to make us His own, but we are not merely His possessions, He has adopted us as His children. How awesome is that?!

No matter who you are, where you have been, what you have done or what has been done to you, you are of great significance and value to God. You, yes you, are His treasure. He gave up so much to make it possible for you to become His child and so that the Spirit could begin the work within you to set you free, to give you the power to say yes to life and no to death, to provide you with a life worth living so great that it can be shared with others and to transform you into the glory of all creation. I am not a second, and neither are you. We simply need to submit to the hands of the Master and see what works of art He will make with us. That is something to rejoice about! That is the source of my contentment and joy, and it is a greater pleasure than it would be to find a dream pipe created by Konstantin Shekita at an auction and winning it for five bucks or finding the winning lottery ticket in a parking lot.


*Top image taken from smokingpipes.com - bottom image taken from Missouri Meerschaum Company.

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