Nonie's Dishes

My wife’s grandmother was named Winona, but everyone called her Nonie. She was a godly old woman with snow-white hair. Each Sunday she would play the piano in the old country church where her husband – Grandpa Del – was the pastor. She knew the hymnal inside and out, and when she sang it was like the heavens opened and an angel was leading us in worship.

​Every holiday season, my wife would walk across the road to her grandmother’s farmhouse and make perogies from scratch. It took all day. On Christmas Day, when we gathered to celebrate Jesus’ birth, the ten-foot-long solid-oak table was packed with food. Everything was hand-made with an extra dose of love, served in her finest china.

​Like many women of her generation, Gramma Nonie displayed all her best dishes in a cabinet. She had stacks of plates, bowls, teacups, tumblers, serving bowls, saucers and cutlery. Everything was safely sealed behind glass and only used on special occasions. Around the edges of each dish were hand-painted scenes of country life, nothing like you can buy in stores nowadays.

​When Gramma died a few years ago, handwritten labels were discovered on the back of nearly everything in her home. She’d thoughtfully marked out who should get her earthly belongings when she went to be with the Lord. That was how all of Gramma Nonie’s best dishes came to us.  It was all carefully wrapped and shipped across the country, where it’s now displayed in our own home. 

​Like any practically minded husband, I viewed the special dinnerware as superfluous. One day I asked my wife why we had to keep all that old stuff when we have our own regular plates and bowls? To this, my wife shot me "The Look." She said in no uncertain terms that her grandmother's plates would remain where they were, only to be used on special occasions. 

 And that was that.

​Of course, our regular dishes aren’t exactly worthy of the Queen – mass-produced plates, chipped cereal bowls, plastic cups, and mismatched coffee mugs. The regular stuff is fine for everyday purposes, especially when a week rarely goes by without having to sweep the broken pieces of some unfortunate item off the floor. However, when special occasions arise – Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, relatives visiting from afar – my wife lovingly pulls out Gramma Nonie’s dishes. Food is carefully served into them and artfully arranged on the table, just like Gramma used to do it. Great care is taken over these special meals, and any time they happen, it’s like Gramma is there with us, cackling at a joke or carrying on a conversation from the next room like she always did.

​Gramma Nonie’s dishes are special, cherished, and precious. They’re handled with the utmost care. They represent her very presence, whether they’re dormant in the cabinet or full of homemade perogies on the table. They’re reserved for a special purpose.

​That is what it means to be holy.​

​We use this term in church all the time, but sometimes religious words lose their everyday significance. We often think of holiness as purity or righteousness, or being free from sin, but that’s not what holy (Greek hagios) actually means. 

​Like Gramma’s dishes, the ancient nation of Israel had tools and utensils that were only to be used for special purposes – in God’s Temple. Everyday items just wouldn’t do. The regular stuff wasn’t evil, it was just regular. There was nothing wrong with Israel’s baskets, cups, plates, and utensils for everyday purposes, but only special utensils were fit for the ceremonies prescribed by the Lord. As such, there were special dishes, utensils, and clothes that were only to be used in the Temple. These items were HOLY.

You shall take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it; and you shall hallow it and all its utensils, and it shall be holy. You shall anoint the altar of the burnt offering and all its utensils, and consecrate the altar. The altar shall be most holy. And you shall anoint the laver and its base, and consecrate it. (Ex 40:9-11)

These items were built especially for God, dedicated to his service, and only used on those special occasions. 

​Similarly, the Greek verb hagiazo means “to make holy”. It’s often translated as “sanctify”, but, again, this word doesn’t have much meaning to us outside of church. It isn’t the same as “purify”, although they often go together. A holy instrument may have to be purified after it becomes unclean for whatever reason, but it doesn’t cease from becoming holy despite in uncleanness. It’s still God’s dish or fork or lamp, even if it’s dirty and needs a scrub.

So it is with people. When we’re saved, we’re simultaneously purified (sins forgiven; made righteous) and sanctified (made holy; set apart for God). Our subsequent sins may defile us (make us unclean) but God daily restores us by Jesus’ blood. However, through it all, we’re still his people – still holy – whether we’re clean or not. David didn’t cease to be God’s appointed king because of his sin, even though he needed to repent.

The Lord has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments, and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to the Lord your God, just as He has spoken. (Deut 26:18-19)

​God has called us all for a purpose, just like he did to Jeremiah:

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you .  (Jer 1:5, NKJV)

​We are God’s holy people – special, cherished, and precious – hand-picked for his divine purposes. ​The opposite of holy isn’t evil or unrighteousness. The opposite of holy is common.

In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.  (2 Tim 2:20-21)

​​Just like my wife would never discard her grandmother’s dishes, God will never discard any of us. He may need to repair cracks or chips when we fall down, but we are precious to him. God proudly shows us off in his heavenly courts.

Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? (Job 1:8)

​This is what it means to be holy as God is holy. It’s not perfection but a separation from common things (Latin vulgaris) of this world. 

​God loves us dearly and cherishes us as precious children. Being holy doesn’t mean being perfect, it means being special. 

​Just like Nonie’s dishes. 

© D. B. Ryen Incorporated, May 2021.  Updated Dec 2025.

All Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: The New King James Version. Thomas Nelson, 1982. 

A version of this article first appeared in Christian Women Living (online), 2021.