Part of me has always loved “old” things, be it used clothing, ancient houses, or vintage cars. Many times we become owners of something “used” because the previous owner has grown tired of the thing. Or maybe, in the case of glass bottles, the owner believed the idea that the packaging was single-use!
Up until a couple decades ago, glass bottles were washed and reused. I remember buying “new” glass bottles of Pepsi that were scuffed from multiple rides on the conveyor belt. Apparently, it is not cost-effective to wash the bottles and refill them now, but that seems crazy. How could it be cheaper to make a new bottle instead of washing and reusing one?
I do not have the answer to that, but I do know that reshaping glass can be a time-consuming and frustrating process. I enjoy it, because I can see beyond “what is” to “what can be,” and that process alone is enough to keep me going. Should it be a bell? A candy dish? A drinking glass? A vase?
I always start by creating a score line and coaxing the glass to break using heat stress–usually a candle–which leaves a thick carbon line across both sides of the break that I have to scrub off.
Once in a while, the glass will react to some interior stress in the glass instead of breaking where I have scored it, and then I have to start all over. I hate to throw glass away, so sometimes I will just make a new line farther down and try again. With practice, I am getting better at getting the results I want, but there is always an element of the unknown. It’s almost like the bottle has to submit to the process and work with me.
After the bottle breaks, I grind the sharp edges smooth using an aluminum-oxide wheel on the grinder, then I sand it smoother yet. Sometimes I engrave the glass using a rotary tool (it shows up better on dark glass), and sometimes I paint it. Sometimes the glass is beautiful just as it is, so I leave it.
I loved the way my finished bottles looked in the sunlight yesterday before the decorative process. Aren’t the different colors beautiful?
Last night, after I had finished a lot of bottles, we all helped some friends move into their new apartment. When we arrived with a load of furniture, we found they had a visitor. We were thrilled to meet a brand new sister in Christ!
We spent some time listening to a small piece of her story (she was homeless), and I couldn’t help connecting her story with what I had been working on all day: I remembered the glass wine bottle with someone’s name on it.
People can be thoughtlessly thrown away, too. And just as intentionally, they can be picked up, brushed off and valued once again. Our loving Father doesn’t value us because we are valued by other people; He knows our true value because He assigned it. He designed us, and formed us in our mother’s womb (Psalms 139:13). He not only knows our potential, but also our eventual future.
When He makes an investment in us, and calls us to Himself, we know that He is doing it intentionally, for a purpose and a plan. But he requires our participation. He is a gentleman; he never pushes us against our will. He leads us with a still, small voice, or possibly gets our attention using some kind of stress, and then we either break toward him or away from him.
And just like a wine bottle, a bad break doesn’t mean He will throw us away. When we reject the Lord, many times he gives us another chance. It all depends on our willingness to be shaped into something lovely and relevant.
And when He takes ownership of us, with our permission, we are transformed. His power starts in our hearts, heals our minds and eventually repairs our bodies. He restores our soul, and makes us new again. We become, as Jesus said, “Born again.”
And so we regain our beauty and our joy, and others can finally see what was always there, but hidden beneath the wear and tear of sin in our lives: The real self as he or she was always meant to be, beautiful in God’s eyes, loved beyond belief, and restored to a place of value.
“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness, For His name’s sake.”
Psalm 23:1-3
The Fullers Four 