The blue jar, with its clamp and seal lid, stands as the centerpiece of our living space, the essence of life’s lessons. The first rays of day illuminate the vessel’s indigo curves. Sunset’s last glow washes the blue in soft gold.
At the close of the hours, a child takes a turn to dangle on stool, reaching to bring the jar down from its countertop ledge over the center kitchen sink. Lid unclamped, a rush of eyes, as ocean blue as the jar itself, press in to peer at jar’s deep bottom.
“How much is there?”
“Not enough.”
“Let’s see.”
The jar offers no homemade cookies, no irresistible treats. But they already knew that. No one is disappointed. This is not about getting.
“How much does it cost again? To give them clean water, I mean.”
This is about a blue jar for blue water.
I grab the Samaritan’s Purse charity catalogue, thumbing to the page with the glossy spread of the Cambodian boy drinking water straight from an outdoor faucet. He reminds me of one of my boys leaning over our kitchen sink, gulping lustily after a game of tag.
I read the text: “$75 will buy a biosand water filter to provide one family with clean drinking water.”
“And how much did you sell today, Caleb?” Hope asks.
“I sold out the last 8 pounds,” Cale crowed. His bike is still standing on the front lawn after his half-mile ride to the nearest neighbor for a delivery order.
“And,” interjected Josh, “we made up another batch of granola, 20 pounds. To fill the repeat orders.”
Towering dishes in the sink attest to their afternoon cooking endeavors. Mason jars of golden oats line the table.
“So let’s count it all up,” Hope giggled with glee.
Tight fists release and coins tinkle on the countertop. Anxious fingers sort and count. Hard earned money is banked carefully away in the celestial-blue jar.
Toothy grins beam triumphantly, hands rub with glee, as another child stretches to return the blue jar to its center perch over the sink. This isn’t about getting, but about becoming: becoming Kingdom Children.
So goes another combined class of entrepreneurialism, economics, and theology: Kingdom Life 101. The children’s synergistic team work in grinding wheat, tending to a bulk recipe, cooking granola batches, packaging, phoning with sales pitches, and delivering orders, teaches more in life skills and responsibility than any curriculum offered in a convention hall. A stellar course in economics results from not only figuring input costs deducted from sales generated, but in storing up treasures in heaven, investing in the eternal. And this, at its very heart, is about the apex of all knowledge, the queen of the sciences, theology.
“Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles.” (James 1:27) How do we care? With profits from a little cereal-making venture dreamed up by four spirited kids. No, our Kingdom Life 101 class will not change the world. But it’s changed this family. And will transform the life of another family on the far side of this spinning orb.
After everyone is tucked into bed, three-year-old Malakai wanders back into the kitchen. “I need a glass of water.” Filling his cup at the sink, my eyes rest upon the blue jar and the truth: “And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least … when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me.” (Mt: 10:42, 25:40)
Another little boy somewhere needs a glass of clean water too. And four passionate kids will keep selling jars of granola until he has just that.
Father? How am I giving to You today? How can we who have “this world’s good, and sees his brotherin need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?” (1 Jn.3:17). Lord, open up my heart to give.
Ready to begin your own Blue Jar to give to the least of these?
Consider:
Operation Christmas Child: Operation Christmas Child brings joy and hope to children in desperate situations around the world through gift-filled shoe boxes and the Good News of God’s love.
Partner’s International : Wrap a gift that will start churches in the least Christian regions of the world
Kiva : Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world
Opportunity : For 35 years, Opportunity International has fought poverty through small business loans and other financial services. The world’s largest Christian microfinance organization, Opportunity serves 810,000 poor entrepreneurs in 27 developing countries.
A repost of a CWO article
