Suppose you have a pitcher of water, nearly full to overflowing, and you pour out all you have into an empty vessel. When you are ready to leave that place, you pour the water back into your ewer to carry with you on your journey. Inevitably, you will not have the same fullness as before. There is always one or two drops that refuse to leave the empty vessel, falling back down and leaving a thin presence around the bottom. This leaves your supply just a few drops short. But suppose then that a gentle rain begins to fall. Won’t your ewer then collect those few extra drops and something more? And won’t those few new drops spread something new through the whole ewer?
Or suppose you take a handful of popcorn and lay it on a plate. Can you pick it all back up again in one grasp? Of course not! If your hand truly was full, not every kernel fits in the same way. Inevitably, you leave a few behind for the scavengers.
So it is with God. When you pour yourself out or lay down your life, you never get fully back what you have given. Not here. But God is doing something greater, using what you could not take with you to start a new plan in motion where you have laid the seed and sending the gentle rain to fill you anew with something fresher, cleaner, and more pure than you’d had.
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