Seeing God through Mugs

I LOVE TO COLLECT MUGS!!!  Not so much cool looking mugs, even though I do like collecting those at thrift stores, but mugs to represent times of my life.  I can look at one of my mugs and a memory comes to mind.  Some mugs represent places God has taken me (mission trips, vacations, jobs) and others tell me about a time of pain or joy.  I finally got a chance to unpack my mugs and give them a home at my new apartment and it was pretty cool to go through those memories with God and thank Him for all that He has helped me through.

It reminds me of Joshua 4: 1 - 9

When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe,  and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.

I underlined my favorite part of it.  When your children ask you, "What do these stones mean?"  Wow what a great way to minister to your kids or grandchildren about what God has done in your life.  When someone looks at my mug collection they might ask, "Why do you have so many mugs?"  I usually respond, "Because it is a useful collection, but they each hold a memory of some cool event in my life."  I never thought about how I can share the Gospel with my mugs, but now I do because in each of those memories God was working.  

It doesn't have to be an object like the stones or a collection either to have an opportunity to share the Gospel.  When I worked at a camp in Texas I got asked a lot about where I was from, since I didn't sound like a Texan.  When I would say Ohio they would ask me, "How did you get here?" That was an opportunity for me to share how God worked through me and got me to work there.

So what in your life can point others to ask you about God?  Are they stones you set up, is it the thing that makes you different from those around you, is it a certain action you do, is it your kindness?  Think about how you can show God's work in your life this week.