Before Dave and I first got married, I went through his house and ”deep cleaned.” I wanted to start our marriage off fresh…with… as silly as it sounds…matching hangers and new Tupperware. Out with the old and in with the new. I purged plastic containers that were stained orange or had clearly been deformed from years of microwave rays. Unknowingly, I even chucked a few of his treasured childhood memories…He was gracious about it, but I still feel guilty to this day.

Fast forward 20 years…This morning, in the quiet, while I sat in my still dark living room, with storm clouds lingering outside the windows, God reminded me of that stained Tupperware.

You see, we all love new things. We love the Amazon truck pulling up the house and delivering our newest possessions. We love things fresh out of the box, never having been used by anyone else. And I especially, until today, loved new Tupperware (or any other brand of plastic storage containers.) But have you ever possessed that one seemingly perfect container? It’s just the right size to hold all your decadent dinner leftovers. And it would be perfect, except the lid just never fits on quite right? Or the lid is almost impossible to pry off? Eventually I’ll get tired of the struggle and after months, or sometimes years, I’ll throw that container in the trash. Worthless.

But what about that unsightly plastic bowl, that used to be perfect, but now has the notorious orange ring forever stained into its pores? The canister that has been filled over and over again with homemade soups, leftover lasagna, or your grandmother’s famous recipe? The Tupperware that when you see it in the fridge, you know it has some kind of hearty goodness waiting for you just below the lid?

That is what I want to be. I don’t want anytime God wants to use me he has to try and pry the lid off. I don’t want to be too stubborn to allow God to fill me with his goodness so I can pour into the lives of others. I don’t want to be useless in the Kingdom of God.

I want to be the trusty old Tupperware, stained and warped, that the Lord uses over and over again for however he sees fit. I want when God is searching for a vessel, he reaches for me without hesitation.

So the next time you open your cupboards and pull out that ol’ misshaped and deformed canister, consider the blessing of being used like that in the hands of God.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and tremblings, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Phillipians 2:12-13