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    The numbers 88 and 89 labeled the tops of the dusty jars we pulled down from the shelves in the laundry room. These jars were a part of a life history. Even though the contents of the jars had been useless for many years, the eleven and twelve-year-old grape juice jars were precious. Irreplaceable. It might take 60 pounds of grapes to make that much juice, my friend had told me.

    That’s a lot of grapes. Her grapes. Grapes that she had planted, watered, tended, harvested, pruned, and canned herself. Grapes from vineyards that, through circumstances beyond her control, she had lost. So she held on to the jars, placing them on a forgotten shelf in the laundry room, letting them take up valuable shelf space that could be used for a variety of other more recent canned goods. Why? Because they were precious. “Irreplaceable.”

    As we surveyed the two dozen or more quart jars of tomatoes and green beans we had been given that day, my friend decided to let go of her precious grape juice jars — the last of her grapes and the last from her vineyards. I climbed up on the washer and brought down jar after jar of musty, brownish-purple liquid that had once been grape juice.

    Knowing what those grapes had meant to my friend, I marveled at the ease with which she emptied the juice into the sink and washed them down the garbage disposal. We knew now that there would be plenty of room on the shelf for the newer, useful vegetables. In addition, we now had the added benefit of sterilized jars to put up more tomatoes and pickle relish. To you, it may seem like a simple thing — putting old juice down a drain. After all, people do it all the time, every day. But these were precious. “Irreplaceable.”

    When I think of my boxes and jars of “stuff” that I keep to hold on to the past, I know it would be incredibly difficult for me to let them go. Especially when letting go would mean creating an empty place that I wouldn’t know how to fill. Especially when it meant giving up something precious. “Irreplaceable.”

    Isn’t that what Jesus asks me to do in life? To let go of “my stuff”! Stuff that I use to hold on to the past. Stuff I use to fill empty places in my heart? And what if I am not completely sure of what Jesus will put in that empty place? Will I be anxious about emptying it?

    It is scary giving up my sense of safety and the circumstances that I have built to insulate my life. At the same time, I know that Jesus calls me away from false security in order to bless me with a fuller, more satisfying life in His care. So am I really His servant if I only serve and follow to the degree that I can see ahead? “Trust me,” He says, “for I am able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than all you can ask or even imagine.” (Eph. 3:20)

I must trust that He will keep His promises.

    If I desire to honestly and truly serve Him, I must trust that He will keep His promises. When I trust Him, I will be able to give up my own agenda. I will not need “my stuff” that I hold on to in the boxes and jars of my heart. He will fill all of that empty space with His own beautiful presence. Then I will be a better servant, looking more like Him, drawing others to Him through my words and actions. I will hold on to the hand of my Savior and I will hold on with all my might. At the same time, I will loosely hold on to things that are fleeting and temporary.

    It is my prayer that He will clean out the jars I have kept hidden away, that he will clean them and make them pure, fill them with his grace, and seal them with His love and faithfulness.

    I praise God for His new mercies every morning.

    I praise Him for holding on to me even when I have let go of Him.

    I praise Him for His grace that covers me as He wipes the dust off, empties out the old musty contents, and disposes of them to never be seen again.

    For only He is precious and irreplaceable! “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. . .I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14