Good Morning Gorgeous,

It’s a brand new day. A fresh new start. I have been mulling around this image in my mind for about a week. It’s the image of a terracotta jar with holes all over. I didn’t know until I did a google search this morning that this type of jar is called a strawberry jar. It is useful for planting strawberries!

That may be common knowledge to many of you, but I have always looked at these pots perplexed by them. I have wondered what they could be useful for.

This week this image of a one of these pots covered with holes came to me. I imagined that this pot symbolized me and all of the holes were the abuses and the traumas that I have endured.

However, I wasn’t sad in any way as I thought this. Instead God showed me His Hand pouring His love and healing oil into the pot as a steady stream and through all of those holes, the love could flow out and touch a wide variety of people who have also endured hurts and pains in this world!

So, as God pours His love and healing oil into me, instead of filling in the holes, He heals them AND uses them.

The love that He pours into me easily flows right out of all of my wounds and into people that I encounter.

My wounds have given me empathy, compassion, understanding, and great respect for those who have endured much. And through my wounds, Jesus’s healing power flows because I have submitted them all over to Him for His use.

He can use every hurt of mine for the good of the kingdom.

He can turn every painful story into a strong testimony of triumph.

He can use a wound of mine to help me relate to a person who is hurting with hope.

Hope that there IS healing available. There is more up ahead than the pain of the moment. Christ is not just a nice idea, but He is the One who can redeem and set free and restore all that has been stolen from you.

He is who He says He is. He can do all He promises in His Word. He is faithful.

And there is something about a wounded soul that has been totally restored by Jesus that makes the Word now have a face and a testimony.

That’s why your stories are SO powerful. Your testimonies give people hope and show them the Word of God alive and active in your life.

So if you have been wounded, and you sometimes even still “feel” broken at times, your wounds may be the very source that God’s love can freely flow to touch another person with a similar wound.

Your wound is a source of compassion, empathy, and proof that God heals and then doesn’t waste a single tear you’ve cried! He allows the wound to become a place from which a river of healing oil and encouragement can flow.

So let God pour fully into You today and then share His love freely. And because God’s love is endless, you’ll never run empty! The more you pour out, the more that will flow, so those holes will be like an endless waterfall. They will never run dry as long as you keep connected to the Living Water Source of Jesus.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Only You can take every hurt and somehow use it for good. Lord, open our hearts to fully receive Your love and healing so that we can openly let it flow onto others. In Jesus’s name, Amen.

Blessings!

Vanessa Lynn