A Set of Bowls

I have read repeatedly that God never wastes a hurt and never discounts an experience.Psalms 56:8 says that all of our tears have been gathered in a bottle and that God has made a record of them.

If each of our experiences is like a component that makes up the structure of our life, we have been promised that “all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord and have been called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)

It is a comforting thought that there is a reason for all that I go through and for all the things that happen to me, if I perceive the reason for each particular thing or not.

Yet I still find it difficult to take that knowledge from a believing heart to understanding and acceptance in my day to day living.

Last summer I bought a glass bowl at a thrift shop.It had a particular shape around the top that was unique.I was thinking it would be great for salads and perhaps even a trifle.

Yesterday I came home, from a thrift store, with a set of four small glass bowls. When I’d unwrapped and washed them I realized that these small bowls were the same peculiar style as the large bowl I’d gotten last year. “Wow,” I thought, “they’re actually a set that goes together.”

These two individual purchases would have each served their own purpose but now together, it expanded the possibilities.

I don’t know what you think but in my humble opinion, if God could work it out for me to unknowingly buy a particular shaped serving bowl one year and the matching smaller bowls the next, I think I have a glass reminder that He is perfectly capable of taking every hurt and every experience of my life and working them together according to His purpose for my good.