GK Chesterton once said that if you give a man an analogy and he does not understand it give him another. I he does not understand this one give him a third. If this man does not comprehend the third attempt then compliment him for see so clearly that he did not understand.
I offer this as an analogy of mankind from God’s perspective… I hope you understand.
The Mason Jar
In the image of God…but not God – Picture a mason jar on a table along side a large clear glass pitcher. The pitcher filled with crystal clear water, the Jar half full of dirt and dry for the moment. We are made in the image of God. We are a soul which is our mind our will and our emotion represented here as the glass container a mason jar. God similarly exists as a soul demonstrated here as a glass pitcher. We are alike in the substance of our soul and we both have a capacity to contain but we are separate and unique from God; as unique as these two separate vessels.
Designed to contain… but only so much – the pitcher itself represents an endless supply of water. Obviously as an analogy my example breaks down a bit here but bear with me.
The mason jar is smaller and is designed to contain a fixed amount of whatever you put in it. Two quarts if you will of anything placed into a one quart jar would result in some spillage.
Only what goes in can come out – imagine reaching down with your hand and gathering a large hand full of dirt and releasing it into the open top of the Mason jar. If it were full with dirt it would overflow dirt. By the same token we could choose to fill our jar with the water from the pitcher and then water would overflow. A combination of the two nets a muddy sort of combination of the two overflowing… you get the idea.
Has no appendages… filling requires a relationship with another – Our large pitcher has a handle and is designed to be a source for other containers. But our jar has no appendages. It can neither work to fill itself nor serve to fill others. If any two jars were to contact each other some of what is in one may spill over to the other. But by design mason jars are created to contain, like the soul of man is a container not a source.
Fulfillment is … being full – as a soul, that is a mind a will and emotion, taking the form of a container our purpose is to be full. All our desire and efforts and thoughts really just center on the problem of needing to be full. The natural movement of life tends to spill our contents. Our constant desire is to be full.
A safety lid, the purpose of the cross and Holy water – here is where things get interesting! Like any good mason jar we have a matching lid. But the lid which covers our soul is uniquely designed backwards, to keep a particular something out not to seal anything in.
Our safety lid is designed by God to protect us from…ironically…God. Follow this real close now; we all heard the story of how sin has separated us from God. What we may not have realized is the substance of God is so perfect that it destroys anything, which is not perfect. When we introduced sin into our soul God had to protect us from his fullness in order to keep us from being eradicated completely. I am calling the method of insulation here a safety lid because it flows with the analogy but the bible calls the insulator many things. In the Garden after the fall we see two creatures standing guard. In the Old Testament there is always a cloud, a curtain, a cleft in the rock or a special box or boat, each representing Gods effort to protect us from His perfection. Finally in Hebrews 10 we find a revealing little note that explains this safety lid was Jesus all along. So the penalty of sin in our soul would have resulted in our destruction but Jesus covered us like a lid. In comes the cross. We should probably know by now Jesus died on that cross for us. But this transaction did some very wonderful things on our behalf. On that cross Jesus absorbed all the penalty of sin which ever entered into mankind’s soul and in that sin filled state He died. Our lid, which was this hand of God called Jesus, was gone. This left us for the first time exposed to God. But we also know Jesus rose again three days later. And the bible says He is seated at the right hand of God, meaning all God’s perfection and Glory now come through His right hand man so to speak, Jesus. We are exposed to God’s perfection and that would be very bad for us, except…He said before He died, if we believe in our hearts and confess Jesus as our savior He forgives us for our sins. He just says nope, that bit of dirt is just like the one I was tempted with and they acknowledged me so I say NO CHARGE, paid in full! Only the right hand man can say that ya know. Finally the Holy water… because Jesus’ transaction makes it ok for us to receive from God He lets the water flow into us as much as we want. So what happens when you pour water into a mason jar full of dirt? Yep, it flushes out the dirt. The more water in the more dirt washes out. Before the cross, the words God gave us stood as rules. Or as you might guess by now they represented a reason we could not receive from God… kind of a backwards …safety lid. Now that same word of God lives in heaven and flows God’s Holiness and goodness into us to cleanse us and make us look more like Him…a clear perfect container.
Last, the embodiment of God’s word and Character…like Jesus.
We remain for now a mason jar with no lid. Our soul has a free will to receive into it what ever it desires to fill itself with. The choice to fill ourselves with the Word and character of God forever remains ours to decide. But someday we have to answer for what is in our soul. We are called by God’s word to be like Jesus. If this analogy made any sense you know that doesn’t mean doing a lot of Jesus stuff. It means spending the precious time you have left trying to fill yourself with the kind of stuff that can make you like Jesus. A container, having self-awareness or a mind, will and emotions choosing only to contain God’s Holy water would be called something like a brother or sister as compared to Jesus. God made us like mason jars… its up to us what we choose to fill our soul with.
