Cracked Pot
The other day I picked up a five gallon plastic container on our dog walk. It was in the back alley next to someone’s trash can. (The unwritten rule around here: If an item is in the back alley by the trash cans, it is free for the taking.)
“I wonder why they are throwing it out?” I said to my husband. He just shrugged his head. After thirty plus years of marriage he has come to accept that his wife is a “dumpster diver”. I can usually make one man’s trash into our treasure. I had designs on that container. I needed something large and non-breakable to use as a vase for our sidewalk give-away of cut hydrangeas.
I swished some water out of the bottom and then proceeded to fill it up. I had left the hose draped on the side to fill and turned away to do another task. When I turned back, I noticed water pooling along the driveway. I couldn’t understand from where it was coming so I started tracing the rivulets of water and low and behold it brought me back to the side of the free container. There was an ever so slight crack halfway up the side of the plastic so that only a quarter of the bottom could be safely filled.
Oh well. You get what you pay for. However, I was still able to use the container. I use it to carry my bag of potted soil.
My cracked water container came to mind when I heard the following story:
“Back in the days when pots and pans could talk, which indeed they still do, there lived a man. And in order to have water, every day he had to walk down the hill and fill two pots and walk them home. One day, it was discovered one of the pots had a crack, and as time went on, the crack widened. Finally, the pot turned to the man and said, ‘You know, every day you take me to the river, and by the time you get home, half of the water’s leaked out. Please replace me with a better pot.’ And the man said, ‘You don’t understand. As you spill, you water the wildflowers by the side of the path.’ And sure enough, on the side of the path where the cracked pot was carried, beautiful flowers grew, while other side was barren. ‘I think I’ll keep you,’ said the man.” ~Kevin Kling as told to OnBeing.org.
I heard Mr. Kling speak on the program On Being. He was sharing different stories from one of his books. A storyteller, playwright and poet, Mr. Kling was born with a congenital birth defect in his one arm and lost the use of his other one in a motorcycle accident. His storytelling is positive and up lifting.
I really liked the image of the cracked pot because I feel like a cracked pot most of the time: incomplete, ineffective and not useful. But I also believe that I and others don’t have to feel that limitations keep us from being useful. Even with our faults, there is a purpose and plan for everyone. God uses each one of us, even those a little cracked, for His work. Sometimes our limitations can encourage others- “if they could do it, so can I”. Sometimes our experiences can pave the way for others- “this is what I learned and it might be helpful for you to know this before you begin…”. Sometimes our situations and outcomes can only be explained through God’s grace- “I could never have done this without God’s strength.”
If I am planning on making some type of craft, I generally will purchase the materials. The materials are new and consequently, the project will look new and put together and generally I am pleased with the results. However, when I re-purpose one item for another, I am thrilled! I love nothing more than to take something that is broken and reuse it for something else. I remember all the details of the endeavor and will be pleased every time I see or use the item. Sometimes I wonder if that is how God is with us: He loves to use our brokenness for something unimaginable and unforeseen yet totally beautiful and useful. He loves to restore and renew and to make whole. In fact, I think He purposely uses those who are cracked for His work: making purpose and beauty out of that which is not. What better hands to be in, then to let the Master Creator, design and re-fashion us and our situations?
What about you? What kind of pottery are you? Fine china? Stoneware? Cracked glaze? Chipped around the edges? Used? Put on a shelf? Where have you seen God working in your life? Re-shaping, re-purposing, re-using a difficult experience. Has your brokenness been used to glorify God?
Actually I like that I am not complete and whole- yet. By God’s grace, each day I can discover what improvement He has in mind for re-using and re-purposing me. As the old gentleman said as he walked off the tennis court, “I left room for improvement.”
May all of us cracked pots feel the same way.
