A Beautiful Collection

It was not the rocks crying out; it was my bottle collection whispering a beautiful new thought to me. My collection began when I brought a few brightly colored bottles to my otherwise boring office and arranged them on the wide windowsills.

People noticed the bottles and began to bring me more. There is the tall, sleek purple one from my son and the soft pink one, with flowers embedded in the shape, from my daughter. There is the bright blue one with the Golden Gate Bridge etched in the side, and a maroon one shaped like a string base. Another is a sister’s perfume bottle, and still another looks like a watermelon and reminds me of the camping trips I enjoyed with my family as a kid. A student brought me an antique orange one as an apology for speaking disrespectfully to me the week before. Another student, who had been cleaning a historic cemetery on her community service project, brought me broken pieces of a purple bottle.

I immediately found a place of honor for those pieces, cemetery dirt and all! “Something is missing!” a campus consultant said after he observed my collection. “You don’t have a red one!” During this conversation, we recognized each other.

He had been one of my work supervisors when I was in academy—many years before. The next time he was on campus, he brought me a stately red bottle. “Mrs. Corder, we found something that made us think of you!” the young sisters burst into my office, not even trying to contain their excitement. “We found this on the dumpster in our trailer park!” It was, honestly, a very ugly brown bottle still fragrant with whiskey, but they were so delighted to give it to me—I found a special place for it on one of the windowsills.

These are just a few of the stories I could tell you about my bottles. If I were to show them to you, I would be compelled to exclaim, “Aren’t they beautiful? I treasure each one.” God has a collection, too, but not of bottles. He collects people.

Some are sleek and impressive.

Others are broken and dirty.

Others feel like they have been left on a dumpster.

God is willing to take them all into His collection.

He delights in how unique they all are, He knows every story, and He treasures each one.

Cheri Corder