HAPPY NEW (CHRISTIAN) YEAR on this Advent Sunday.
In a poor Middle Eastern village, there was an ancient well,
next to which were two large pots, one new, one old.
Time after time, the older pot was ignored and unused,
except by a little village girl.
Every day she chose it instead of the beautiful new pot.
One morning, the old pot asked her
(for these pots had the gift of speech),
"Why do you continue to use me,
when you know I am cracked,
and cannot hold the water
you and your family so desperately need?"
The little girl spoke not a word, but carried the cracked pot
back along the pathway she used daily.
Then one day, she spoke to the Old Pot, and said
"This is why I pick you."
She asked the Old Pot to look down on the path.
There along the path was a row of delicate wild flowers
that had bloomed along the trail,
because of the water that had leaked from the cracked Old Pot.
The cracked Old Pot for the first time had seen its worth
through the eyes of a grateful little girl.
In the scheme of things, nothing is useless,
Everything has purpose.
God loves Cracked Pots!
He chooses to shine through imperfect vessels
because the Light can be seen through the cracks.
Relish the fact that you could be more useful to God
as a cracked pot of character, through whom His Light can shine
Never over-worry that you have made mistakes,
or that you have flaws, weaknesses, gaps.
And what about those times in life when you have felt broken?
When you allow the Light of Christ to shine into your broken, flawed places,
Christ’s Light will shine through you to give new hope and new purpose to others.
Our Church is a place where Cracked Pots can be renewed, repaired,
and can come to know that, flawed or not, cracked and broken vessels
can be affirmed in their usefulness.
Our Church is full of vessels, all beautiful, all flawed;
vessels letting the Light of Christ shine on the needs of others;
Our Church is full of cracked pots
who go along with the crack-pot teachings of Jesus,
which talks of turning the other cheek,
which clothes the naked, feeds the hungry,
mourns with those who mourn, comforts the discomforted..
On this day of resolution, this New Year’s Day in our Christian Year;
let’s give thanks for God’s crack-pot plan
to love you and me for all that we are;
Thank God that you have survived the knocks
that have created the cracks in your life,
through which God in Christ can shine.
When you feel like your brokenness disqualifies you from being useful, remember you serve a God who chooses broken and sinful people to accomplish his mission.
We’ve a job to be doing, a broken and cracked world out there
needing God’s Light and love, in need of repair.
Our calling under God, as Christians and as a Church,
is to help build heaven on a broken earth.
Comments