The Silver Cup

                                                        The Silver Cup

     As I was cleaning out closets, I came upon a small and old, blackened cup. My memory told me that it had been given years ago to one of my children, when they were born. Now, as I held the blackened, rather ugly, cold metal cup in my hand, I was tempted to toss it in the trash. Although this looked like a piece of junk, my memory told me that it was a silver cup and also a special gift. So, I decided to make the effort to restore it, and scrubbed it with silver polish. It was so badly tarnished after so many years of disuse, that it made little difference.
     Looking on the internet, there was a "recipe" for removing tarnish from silver. They say jokingly that if you find anything on the internet it must be true, but in this case, the recipe worked!
I mixed a half gallon boiling water with ½ cup of baking soda and soaked the cup in this mixture. It did remove much of the tarnish and after more vigorous scrubbing with silver polish, the cup soon was shining a soft silvery glow.
     In checking the baby book, it showed that the cup was given to my child by my grandparents, who my child had never actually met, before they passed away.
     When the cup was fully polished and shiny, I presented it as a gift to my adult child (now a parent). My child was amazed at the gift, not having remembered it from babyhood and touched and curious at this gift from great-parents that were never met. It was a link to the past.
     And so our heavenly Father sees us as that old black, tarnished silver cup, looking ready to toss in the trash, to someone who does not know its worth. But our Father knows our worth, because He made us in His image. Though we are tarnished and marred by the sin and ugliness of the fallenness of our world, He knows our value. Instead of tossing us in the trash heap, he "cleans" us up, if we allow it. He paid for our sin by His own sacrifice of His Son, Yeshua (Jesus) and then begins the clean-up. All the scrubbing and soaking in boiling water is not pleasant, but in the end, He has a beautiful, shining result to present as a bride to our Messiah.