Jesus in a Jar

originally written in 2017

“My mamma always told me that if anyone comes and tells me that they have put Jesus in a jar and that they want to give me that jar, then you need to turn and run away as fast as you can.”

Lesson: God’s presence and abilities are so big, so immeasurable, that if anyone tells you that they have all you need to know in such a small container that you should be weary and not fall for what they are trying to “sell” you.

Scripture: Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. Psalm 147:5

I always enjoy having my patient’s, especially those who have lived longer, fuller lives that I have, tell me about spiritual lessons and beliefs that they have learned across their time on this planet. I have often felt that no matter how hard of a day I am having or how bad my life situation seems to be, that these people have typically gone through something much worse and have lived to tell about it.

It is easy to see this when the patient is someone who has acquired some kind of physical disability through a stroke or brain tumor, but the lessons I learn also come from the lives they have often had to live and endure. Many of these individuals have lived through World Wars, The Great Depression, loss of loved ones, failed marriages, and so many other life situations. The unifying theme, though, is that no matter what has happened to these people they all tend to come back to God and place their faith and trust in him. No matter what!

Seeing this kind of love for God, this kind of unwavering trust in his ability to change any situation and deliver us from our sins, has made me take a closer look at how I live my life. It is no mistake that God placed me in the role and profession that he has. Not necessarily for me to help my patients, but for them to help me…

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting and working with an older, African American woman through my practice. She was a little suspicious of me at first with “all of my questions” and wondering who sent me. She stated that she had been seeing visions at her home late at night (what in the medical field we call hallucinations) and that she had been unable to sleep. All of this had been impacting her ability to remember, it had impaired her decision-making skills, and that she was not sure what or who she could believe anymore.

For this woman, the “visions” were real, and were often very scary. She went on to tell me that she had been seeing demons, sent by the devil, to scare her and to try to shake her faith. She said that they would crawl all around and across her bed, walk up to her and stare at her, and everything possible to try to drive away her faith. She said “you know that is how the devil works, he tries everything he can to shake us up and to take us away from our God.”

She wasn’t sure if her new ability for “seeing” the demons and feeling the stress of the situation was because of recent brain changes caused by a stroke or perhaps a side effect of the new medication regimen that she was on. What she was sure of was that no matter what that she would not believe that any of this was the work of God and that God would not be put into that small of a situation either good or bad.

She believed that God would allow her to be tested, just like he has for her whole life, but she did not believe that he could be stopped or contained. She did not fear that she would not get better or that this situation too would pass.

Hearing her story, and thinking about how frightening and anxiety producing this situation could be if it happened to me, I asked her what she does to get through those dark times. She told me that she would always remember a saying that her own mother had told her when she was young. “My mamma always told me that if anyone comes and tells me that they have put Jesus in a jar and that they want to give me that jar, then I need to turn and run away as fast as I can.”

She told me that what this means, and the lesson that God wants us to learn, is that God’s power and reach cannot be reduced to small situation that did not have a solution, and at the same time He is so big and so powerful that he is everywhere all of the time. Likewise, if we were ever lead to believe that if we just had one small thing, one book, one DVD, one material possession, or some other thing that someone promised that if we had that we would have peace and salvation that we should be cautious and not fall for it.

God is everywhere all the time. He is at our side in the good moments; he is at our side in the bad moments. It is hard for us to believe that he allows us to be tested, but he wants us to know that his love, his mercy, and his grace can never reduced to any small thing, good or bad. You cannot put God in a jar. The devil cannot put us in a jar either. God can get us out of bad situations, he can deliver us from evil, and he can show us grace and mercy even in our darkest of hours. Amen.