Why I’m Carrying Spices in My Purse All Year Long

January 3, 2014 | 15 comments

A whole year of days stretches out before us, but sometimes? It’s hard to step into tomorrow, because we know that some of the best beginnings end ugly.

We’ve memorized the ache of endings.

We’re old enough to know how dreams can die,
so we’re scared to dream.

We know how relationships can wither,
so we’re scared to love.

We’ve felt the sting of failure,
so we don’t want to try anymore.

You can put a finger on the hollow ache in your heart, pointing to the places where your best hopes faded. You can walk through life, tiptoeing into tomorrow, and you might think that there are only tombstones in these fields.

But in Christ, the cemetery isn’t an ending.

In Christ, endings are always passageways, not closed doors. In Christ, endings are a moving from here to there, a turning of a page in a book that stretches out into forever, a God-ordained “furthermore,” a heart-pounding “and then!” that we are living. Right now.

Endings don’t always look like passageways. I get that. Endings are often painful. They can make a new year seem like a sham, like same ol’, same ol‘, like more opportunity for disappointment. Endings can take you to the brink of your sanity, and to the ragged edge of your hope.

They can also take you to Christ. Even in the cemetery. Especially in the cemetery. 

The Christmas story moves forward and then — bam — it crashes head-on with the worst of humanity, in the most heart-wrenching Friday in the history of Fridays. But Christmas doesn’t end on the cross, and it doesn’t end in the cemetery. Christmas is a timeless truth spilling onto every page of the unending Book of Everything. It changes your forever. And it changes your TODAY. 

Walk into the cemetery again, that place where hopes go to die. Walk there, and walk slow, so you don’t miss the miracle.

“But very early on Sunday morning
the women went to the tomb,
taking the spices they had prepared.”

~ Luke 24:1

Friend, prepare your spices. Carry them with you.

Carry them in your purse or your pocket. Carry them when you feel like endings are periods, in places where you need commas. Carry them to the places that feel like cemeteries, to anyplace where endings aren’t always as they seem.

Carry your spices all year, to know that in Christ, endings aren’t always endings.

That is, unless you let your endings be endings. Unless you let your dreams die. Unless you let fear have unrestricted access to your one precious heart.

“The most valuable land in the world is the graveyard,” someone once said. “In the graveyard are buried all of the unwritten novels, never-launched businesses, unreconciled relationships, and all of the other things that people thought, ‘I’ll get around to that tomorrow.’ One day, however, their tomorrows ran out.”

Carry your spices to remember that Christ rose to give you hope for tomorrow.

And carry your spices to remember that we will suffer, but that suffering conf0rms us to the image of our Savior.

Carry your spices so you know that new beginnings are on the other side of the most daunting stone in the history of the world — the one at the tomb of your Savior.

Dare to dream. Dare to love again. Have hope. Believe.

Carry your spices to your Savior, where a sealed tomb always becomes a surprise passageway … where a tomb becomes a new beginning that the spice-carriers didn’t even know was possible.

“Why are you looking among the dead
for someone who is alive?
He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead.”

~ Luke 24:5-6

 

 

 

by | January 3, 2014 | 15 comments

15 Comments

  1. Marcy

    This. Is beautiful. A great reminder for the places where I am daring to hope and dream.

    Reply
  2. HisFireFly

    just yes
    what beauty, what truth here

    Reply
  3. ro elliott

    “Carry your spices to your Savior, where a sealed tomb always becomes a surprise passageway … where a tomb becomes a new beginning that the spice-carriers didn’t even know was possible”….love this…going to share with my niece who is going through a such a painful divorce…(well can there really be one that is not painful). Thanks!!!

    Reply
    • Lynn D. Morrissey

      Ro, praying for your niece. I remember your talking about her. We just got home from spending time w/ my brother, whose wrenching divorce is just later this month, just one day before his 33rd wedding anniversary. All he can see around him is death. In some small way I can understand your dear niece’s pain. I’m so sorry.
      Love
      Lynn

      Reply
  4. ThandiweW

    Wow….I knew there was a blessing, but couldn’t tell the direction from which it would come. Jennifer, your words have done it again. Amen!
    Peace and good to you in the New Year.
    Chelle

    Reply
  5. beth_e

    A powerful message and a wonderful idea, perfect for the new year!

    Reply
  6. Deb Anderson Weaver

    Wow. Powerful thought that helps us turn the corner.

    Reply
  7. lydiajw

    Such good ideas here. Thank you!

    Reply
  8. Lynn D. Morrissey

    So beautiful, Jennifer, and so often I’m resigned not to dream anymore. But as I think back through my life, death of dreams has often given birth to others–often better ones. There is always, always resurrection in the Christian life. It’s one of the greatest realities and great mysteries. The women took the spices to embalm a dead Savior, and when they arrived, He was not there! They no longer needed them. Praise God! I am so thankful for your reminder that endings are always beginnings (my 2014 word) in the Lord. Dear God, help me to remember that! Happy New Year, Jennifer.
    Love
    Lynn

    Reply
  9. Krista

    This is simply amazing! What a brilliant idea!
    Thank you!

    Reply
  10. Sharon O

    beautiful thoughts, I love it all.

    Reply
  11. Paula Gamble

    I feel like that was the best motivational speech ever – and it’s all Truth. My heart cries, “Freedom.” Picture Braveheart. Amen to all this. I’m going to carry my spices and not give up. Jesus is our hope and He has already won for us. Thank you for these words, Jennifer!

    Reply
  12. Barbie

    So much beauty here. Thank you!

    Reply
  13. chris

    well here on the farm we would call this a 2×4 moment.. One that strikes you so that you awaken from the hurt to shining glory. I cant wait for the book,

    Reply

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