Walking Penelope this morning in a beautiful English cathedral of stained glass leaves. The sun’s golden rays are shining directly through the maple trees, lighting the trees’ gloriously watercolored leaves. Brings back memories from my college trip to England, the breath taking beauty of their cathedrals’ stained glass windows. My water oak is showing out, too, his golden ballerinas pirouette in the breeze, dancing slowly in their flights. The blue sky is cloudless and pure in its ocean coloring. The songbirds are sparse this morning but I can hear them singing their hymns of thanks for this pretty day.

The black turkey buzzards are gathering on the pitched roof next door. Hope it’s a short court session. Four of them watched me and Penelope when we walked down the sidewalk. If you know me, you know I’m full of useless facts and trivia. I couldn’t help but think about the buzzard’s ability to projectile vomit up to ten feet to deter predators. I was calculating how far away they were as we hurried by.

Watched Mother Nature pick up her watercolor brushes at sunset, color washing the horizon a pale lemon drop. The sun set as a glowing white light, sliding down the horizon in her beautiful golden gown, kissing the day goodnight as she lay her head down. Father Sky gave the sun a goodnight kiss and hung a crescent moon, bright and luminous, and set a million stars to shine in the navy sky canopy. I will never tire of watching these magnificent sunsets and always think of Rosie and Chief and wonder what they see at sunset and sunrise. I think the sunset would have to be glorious and breath-taking being viewed from heaven.

I love drinking from a pint Mason jar. I’m drinking water from a Mason jar now, sitting in my reading chair thinking about God and Mason jars. A Mason jar is clear and fragile. We can screw the lid on tight or leave it loose. We can see through the jar and know what we’re getting. When I was a child I stored my marble collection in Mason jars. The jars let us enjoy the blessings of fruits and vegetables from our summers in the winter months. When I take a vacation with my grandchildren I fill a Mason jar with treasures I find. Every time I see those pint jars on my bookshelf I’m flooded with happiness.

Mason jars are ordinary but what we put in them makes them special. We can put our treasures in a jar, save our pocket change in a jar. We can fill our jars with delicious jelly, relish, or homemade vegetable soup, use our jars for bacon grease drippings, or even sit in the porch swing and sip sweet tea from a Mason jar. We can save for a rainy day or for a trip to Paris.

Life is like that, we choose what to put in our jars and carry with us. Today my jar is filled with happiness in preparing food for our family Thanksgiving dinner and with joy in looking forward to seeing my children and grandchildren and my three brothers and their families. My jar is running over with love for my family.

Some of us fill our Mason jars up with everyday blessings, leaving the lid loose. Others tighten the lids, stingy with life treasures, always waiting for the shiny objects to catch their eyes, not willing to add everyday blessings to their jars, afraid their jar will overflow. As they keep waiting, their everyday blessings go to the wayside instead of filling their jar. Others of us gather our prizes daily, thankful to wake up with breath for another day, going through life with God’s grace as a treasure in our Mason jar, pouring out his love and light by our words and actions, filling our jar with prayers and thanksgiving.

Corinthians 4:7 states, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” In the Bible, jars of clay were used to hold treasures and keep things safe. God gives us treasures and his treasures last forever. We can fill our Mason jars with God’s light, too, and remove the lid and share his holy light with others. God doesn’t measure his love, he gives it freely and unconditionally, pours his spirit and blessings on us. In Isaiah Chapter 44, God says, “I will pour out my spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants.”

Don’t be stingy with things you put in your jar. Fill it up with scriptures and stories of God’s blessings. When the going gets tough unscrew the lid and pour out some of God’s grace.

“Everything is better in a Mason jar.” — Unknown