Last night, walking into church for the girls to sing in choir - we were toting 3 1/2 gallons of honey from a group order we did together. We were delivering honey to friends. I had two and each of the girls had one or the half.
There was a car coming through the drive, so I urged the girls forward as they were waiting for us to cross and Emily dropped her gallon of honey. Oh no - it broke open near the handle {plastic milk-type jug} and began oozing out onto the pavement.
I am not going to try and put on some super mom front - I was upset and even shaking for the next two hours. I reminded her it was not our honey and was $38 a gallon. And, why oh why did she do that!? It was not pretty in any way.
Bless a dad walking through the parking lot who saw our predicament. He found a couple of plastic bags and loaded that gooey jug up into those bags and figured out how to lay it on its side so it would not continue leaking out.
I sent the girls on their way to choir and made a couple of trips to the church, the car, the bathroom to wash my hands and such.
On my way home, it struck me that I have been looking forward to when they came home from choir so I could begin our Journey Through the Holy Days, so we could worship and have repentance on our minds and tongues and in our hearts.
And, while I was feeling defeated and how-can-I-manage-one-more-thing-like-this kinds of feelings, God revealed a beautiful lesson for my littles.
We are broken, just like that jug of honey. Our sin is oozing out all over and causing a big sticky broken ugly wasteful icky mess. God scoops us up and makes something whole and beautiful out of us even though we don't deserve it.
I saw how the broken jug of honey shows us why we need Him and that is exactly what this forty days before Easter is for - to remember our need for a Savior. We sin. We mess up. We need saving.
Earlier in the day, I had made a carrot cake and we didn't have time to enjoy it after dinner. I sliced a small piece for each little to demonstrate part of our lesson. Samuel is on dessert restriction and by the way, when do we ever deserve dessert?! When I am steaming mad and two of three are in deep hot water, isn't this the wrong time to serve cake at bed time?
But, here is the message I was hearing in my heart - we don't deserve the cake, we don't deserve saving. It is a beautiful picture of why we are celebrating this time of year as we remember, reflect and repent.
Just because we're all curious how stories end up - I'll tell you that I brought the sticky mess home and poured it out into mason jars. Out of the 16 cups in a gallon, a little over 2 cups was missing - not too bad. We'll swap one of our gallons out to make it right for our friend and I think we will all walk away with a renewed perspective.
I pray that every time I take one of these jars out of the cabinet, I will remember how much I need Jesus and what a precious gift He has given in saving me.
