The Empty Bowl

Dear Friend,

I was doing dishes earlier and I picked up this one bowl that was completely empty. Like, painfully empty. No leftover soup, no crumbs, nothing. Just sitting there in the sink looking kind of sad and dramatic. 🥣

And for some reason, it made me stop and stare at it for a second.

I think a lot of us are scared of feeling empty. We treat it like something went wrong. Like if we feel hollow or quiet or like we have nothing left to give, then we must be failing at something. So we rush to fill ourselves up with anything we can find — noise, people, scrolling, work, even good things — just so we don’t have to sit with the emptiness.

But watching that empty bowl made me wonder if maybe emptiness isn’t always a problem. Sometimes it’s just… space. Space that’s waiting. Space that’s ready.

I don’t think God is scared of our empty places the way we are. I think He actually likes them. Not because He wants us to stay empty, but because empty bowls are the ones that can actually be filled. Full ones can’t receive much more.

I’ve had seasons where I felt completely scraped out. And honestly, those seasons were awful while I was in them. But looking back, I can see that some of the gentlest, kindest things God has done in my life happened when I didn’t have anything left to perform with. I was just… there. Empty. And somehow that was enough for Him to work with.

I don’t know. Maybe the empty bowl isn’t a sign that something is missing. Maybe it’s a sign that something is still coming.

Anyway, I ended up washing the bowl and putting it away. It looked a lot less dramatic once it was clean and sitting in the cabinet. Just a regular bowl, waiting for whatever comes next.

I hope if you’re feeling a little empty right now, you’re being kind to yourself about it. Empty doesn’t always mean broken. Sometimes it just means you’re ready.

Until next time,
Ellie