Spiritual Purses

It’s gone! It was right here in the desk drawer where I always put it. Oh… where I always put it. And someone must have been watching me through the glass from the public corridor. Waiting for me to follow my usual morning routine that would take me to the back office to make coffee. Just enough time to steal my purse.

Purses contain valuable things. money, keys, credit cards. But how about a toothpick if you have something stuck in your teeth? Or fresh Kleenex to offer someone with a runny nose?

The Queen of England was known for her purses, mostly the same style, the short handles resting easily on her arm. She used it as a tool to signal to her staff when it was time to move on or to end a conversation. Word has it that her purse contained lipstick, mirror, reading glasses, Kleenex (I told you!), mints, various trinkets from her grandchildren, and a hook to hang her purse from under the table when she sat down to eat. Also a five pound note for the offering plate at church. Maybe ten pounds if she was in a generous mood. She didn’t carry money or credit cards. Not much of value in her purse.

Funny thing is, the thief who stole my purse found nothing of value to him either. Thirty-five cents and no credit cards. We didn’t have much money in those days, and there was no reason to have a credit card since we couldn’t afford to pay it off.

Years later a diaper bag became my purse when the children were babies. I’d just slip my wallet into that enormous satchel that never matched my outfit. Style came later when they were out of diapers.

“Here, Honey, put this in your purse!” is a familiar request from my husband, especially when he needs a place for his sunglasses or car keys. I used to take an extra purse along on vacations as a catch-all for brochures and papers we collected along the way.

I always wonder how women got stuck with carrying purses. It wasn’t always that way. In the Bible men commonly carried around purses (Proverbs 7:20; Luke 22:36). Today we hear the phrase “the power of the purse” and that doesn’t mean the ability to whack someone with it. It’s the “purse strings” that has the power. Everyone likes being in charge of that purse!

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Jesus sometimes told his disciples to carry a purse and sometimes not to. It depended on what they would need. He knew what they were facing so He prepared them (Luke 22:35-36).

There was a scripture reading one Sunday morning that really caught my eye. “You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it” (Haggai 1:6). Now I’ve had purses with holes in the lining. I thought I was missing something, but it had slipped through a tear. But this is talking about a hole in the purse itself.

What kind of purse is this? I’m thinking it isn’t about money at all. I’m thinking it isn’t a man’s or woman’s purse stuffed with important or useless items. Perhaps this purse is my life, my existence, my character, who I am. My soul even. My relationship with my Savior.

Sometimes I feel like that purse of mine has a hole in it. Or more than one. My Lord Jesus tells me that I’m too worried about my purse being stylish or worried that it won’t contain everything I could possibly need.The things I work for, try to accomplish, spend my time on, those things I think I absolutely need, can slip right through that hole and my energy vanishes as well.

I hear His voice, the same one the disciples heard: “I’ll tell you what you need and when to be concerned. I’ll even provide you with an amazing life, that purse that holds an abundance of blessings. Things that you may not even recognize as being valuable. But I do."

And then His voice gives me the reassurance that I truly need: "You are mine and so are your days. Trust me.”

Leaving my guilt at the cross,

Christine