Good Things in Jars

Growing up I loved going to my Aunt Billie’s house. She lived on a farm. There was always fun things to do and plenty of room to get rid of excess energy. There were animals everywhere, but I think the best thing might have been her canned tomatoes and tomato juice…garden tomatoes at your fingertips all year long. I loved shaking up the liquid, popping open the jar, sprinkling a little salt and pepper in there and then just drinking it right out of the mason jar.

Last year, I read a book called, “Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project.” This book involved the telling of an amazing story of high school students in Kansas discovering an obscure reference about a Catholic woman in war-torn Poland smuggling Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto. These kids investigated this story to its deepest roots, including traveling to Germany to meet this incredible woman, who was still alive at the time, and sharing with the world the incredible work she did at such a scary point in world history. Only the people Sendler helped knew of the work she accomplished in the name of faith, until these youth decided the world needed to know. Irena Sendler would smuggle children out of the ghetto and place them in the homes of compassionate people who would give these Jewish children life and safety. Irena did not want these children to lose their identities, some were too young to remember their families of origin, so she would write their names and a few details about their origins and the families who took them. She would place these pieces of paper in glass jars and bury them in her back yard. These jars would be dug up years later as the Kansas youth were investigating the origins of this obscure story they stumbled upon.

Soul Sisters plan to begin 2016 with life in jars. They meet tonight with their mason jars to devote their year to focusing on all the good things, the blessings life holds, for them and others in this world. Each time they learn of something good in this world, whether it be a personal experience or something they’ve heard of in other parts of the world, they will write it down on paper and place it in the jar. At the end of the year, they will gather for their December Christmas celebration and share some of those blessings with the group. Cultivating an attitude of gratitude is always a good thing. Sharing that gratitude with friends in faith can be a very good thing.

Soul Sisters meets the third Wednesday of the month from 6-7 p.m. (This week is a make-up meeting due to the inclement weather we had last week.) If you aren’t able to join the group, consider creating your own jar of blessings. This would also be a great family devotional practice and can help teach children to develop attitudes of thankfulness as they mature into adults committed to living lives of blessings.
Shalom,
Tracy