A CRACKED VASE
I’m not sure where exactly it started but it’s quite possible it all began when as a child I was doing my regular weekly chore. At the age of seven this happened to be dusting, furniture and assorted knick knacks. One of these was a unique little vase which had a crack that was really more of a piece broken out and glued back in. For some reason I was fascinated by it. Then there was the ornamental blue jay which had lost the last inch of his tail. The broken tail end was splinted in with a splinter of wood which, when stuck into each break filled the hollow area just enough to attach the tail to the main part of the body to make it look just fine!
I remember as a youngster being drawn to these items and wanting to know exactly how they were broken in the first place. I no longer remember what the explanation was or if there even was one!
What I do remember is that to this day I love shopping at flea markets, yard sales, etc. I am drawn to items that have seen better days and enjoy bringing them home, cleaning and fixing them up. Making them beautiful and useful again has become a passion of mine. There is nothing that is too far gone, nothing that is not worthy of a little extra time and TLC. I believe they call it re-purposing....
Now you probably know where I’m going with this; God made me in His image and breathed into me the breath of life. He designed me with a special purpose in mind but somewhere along the way I developed a crack, a big one, that basically rendered me useless. Without intervention I would have surely been trashed. Someone saw me in the back corner of the shelf, cowering under my coat of dust, ashamed of what I had become without a hope in the world.
This Someone picked me up and He didn’t flinch when I began to fall apart in His hands. Rather, His hands went to work and He re-fashioned me into what I was always destined to be, a vessel that would bring honour to my Creator. What gets me excited here is that He not only glues me back together; He takes all the brokenness and makes of me a totally new creation according to Jeremiah 18: 3-4. ‘Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it’.
I have been made new, re-purposed and given a job to do. Every day I try to remember that and there are still days when those cracks show up and my first response is to hide in the back of the shelf and let the dust and cobwebs fall. But NO, I recall the potter’s loving effort put into making me useful and beautiful. I no longer own myself, I am His and His DNA is inside me which I believe is what keeps me aware of things that need a loving hand to bring them back to life again. More than that, I am keenly aware of people that need the hand of the Potter to lovingly remake them and bring back their beauty and usefulness!
In fact, that is my purpose as I continue on my way to the party!
I remember as a youngster being drawn to these items and wanting to know exactly how they were broken in the first place. I no longer remember what the explanation was or if there even was one!
What I do remember is that to this day I love shopping at flea markets, yard sales, etc. I am drawn to items that have seen better days and enjoy bringing them home, cleaning and fixing them up. Making them beautiful and useful again has become a passion of mine. There is nothing that is too far gone, nothing that is not worthy of a little extra time and TLC. I believe they call it re-purposing....
Now you probably know where I’m going with this; God made me in His image and breathed into me the breath of life. He designed me with a special purpose in mind but somewhere along the way I developed a crack, a big one, that basically rendered me useless. Without intervention I would have surely been trashed. Someone saw me in the back corner of the shelf, cowering under my coat of dust, ashamed of what I had become without a hope in the world.
This Someone picked me up and He didn’t flinch when I began to fall apart in His hands. Rather, His hands went to work and He re-fashioned me into what I was always destined to be, a vessel that would bring honour to my Creator. What gets me excited here is that He not only glues me back together; He takes all the brokenness and makes of me a totally new creation according to Jeremiah 18: 3-4. ‘Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make it’.
I have been made new, re-purposed and given a job to do. Every day I try to remember that and there are still days when those cracks show up and my first response is to hide in the back of the shelf and let the dust and cobwebs fall. But NO, I recall the potter’s loving effort put into making me useful and beautiful. I no longer own myself, I am His and His DNA is inside me which I believe is what keeps me aware of things that need a loving hand to bring them back to life again. More than that, I am keenly aware of people that need the hand of the Potter to lovingly remake them and bring back their beauty and usefulness!
In fact, that is my purpose as I continue on my way to the party!
Comments
Post a Comment