The 2,000 Year-Old Jar

    It was in the midst of a fascinating presentation on Rome that the catastrophe occurred.  The speaker picked up a very small glass perfume jar. 

    "This," Mr. Chapman explained, "is about two thousand years old, and you're going to get a chance to do something that very few people get to do. I'm going to pass this jar around and let you hold it. You'd never get to do that in a museum!"  

    My heart leaped into my throat as he handed it to one of my first and second grade students in the first row. Didn't he know that children drop things? Wasn't it common knowledge that children can break things just by holding them? My anxiety rose as the student turned the tiny object over, viewing it from all sides. 

    Then he turned to hand it to the child next to him. The delicate jar dangled over the hard linoleum. I waited, expecting the rare antiquity to crash to the floor at any moment. In my mind's eye, I imagined it dramatically shattering into a thousand splinters of cliché.

    It was all I could do to keep from jumping up and holding the jar for my class and just letting them look at it. Maybe then it would be safe for them to reach out a finger and touch it. Letting them hold it was really too much for me to handle! I hovered over them, mentally hyperventilating all the while.

    At last the jar was passed back to the next class and I felt myself relax. Now at least if something happened it wasn't my responsibility. 

    Every day we are given precious things to hold: the hand of a child, the beauty of nature, a new friendship. I marvel that God hands them to us, trusting us with the best of His creation. He doesn't hover anxiously. He doesn't reach out to take them back when He sees us making mistakes. He just watches us, waiting in case we call out for help.

    We cannot clutch these fragile gifts too tightly, for they may crumble to dust in our fingers. Neither can we handle them carelessly for they may crash to the floor. Instead, we must take the precious things we have been given and hold them gently, cherishing the fact that God Himself has entrusted us to hold His creation in our hands and in our hearts.