as, i am sure, every person is to some extent whether the pain is large or small.
this jar of clay,
like that pitcher of clay that sat out in the hot sun all summer...
we both share our scars.
i remember, as a young bride-to-be, holding the smooth and cool vessel on that hot september evening surrounded by women celebrating this new stage i was entering into.
i remember imagining the thirst it would quench,
the table it would grace,
the beauty it would add...
10 years later,
weakened by the elements
and little clumsy hands,
that mouth gapes wide
as the lip gives way
and i bend down to pick up the broken pieces.
it's still salvageable.
still usable,
only now?
it's a little scarred.
water drips and dribbles out where it shouldn't,
but it still sits open, waiting to be filled.
open and waiting...
is that what He asks us to be?
and it's lent and i've committed to letting things go
while adding one thing in.
and every morning i read them
these words from paul that make this heart of mine pound...
and it's this one in particular that hits hard as i sit beside what is cracked and glued back together,
as the fragrance of those flowers fill what is open,
what is waiting,
and settles around me,
but we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
(2 corinthians 4:7 ESV)
yes, we have been given a treasure...
our mouths gape open in pain and shock and fear,
as what shatters around us leaves us grasping to pull all those shards in close.
but in our clumsy hands, those shards draw blood,
sink the pain in deeper.
but when He, with Those Hands that bear Their own scars of Love,
but when He, with Those Hands that bear Their own scars of Love,
when They reach down and gather up and bind together
and make what is broken
full of worth again,
those fissures?
they only add to the beauty of a life filled with Him.
they give testament to His Power that is made perfect in our fragile weakness.
yes, we have been given a treasure...
miry clay filled up with Him.
