I recently read a blog by Benjamin Harper (Children's Pastor at First Assembly) and I want to share it with you.
Sweet! No wax.
Once upon a time when things were a bit more simple than they are today, people would use pottery for things other than for decoration. So it was very important to find a container that would actually hold things. Permanently.
We don’t form too many clay pots ourselves these days, but if we did then we would quickly find out that in the process of shaping them and baking them, pots would often crack, rendering them useless. For us it might not be a big deal just to throw it out and start all over again, but if making pots were your livelihood, then you might be tempted to find a way to sell that cracked pot.
And many potters did just that. Eager to make a living, they would fill the cracks with wax and let it harden, then cover over the pot so that the consumer wouldn’t know that there was ever an imperfection in the container. That is, until they got home and heated it up, and the wax melted and whatever it is that they were cooking ran all over the floor.
Those potters who didn’t want to be associated with such poor craftsmanship devised a way for their consumers to know that they could trust buying from them: they stamped the words in latin on the bottom of their pots "SIN CERA." Without wax. That way people could know that they could be trusted.
We use the same word all the time - SINCERE. As Christians, it should be the marking that is stamped into the fabric of our lives. Because when we learn to be sincere with those around us, especially with those who don’t believe in Christ, we prove ourselves able to be trusted. What’s more, we prove ourselves worthy of containing the very things that God would pour into us, so that when life puts a little heat under us, we don’t melt and become useless.
And just like those painted-over pots that feigned authenticity and usefulness, it doesn’t take very long for even the least discerning person to reveal an impostor.
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