Sometimes life is just hard; that’s all there is to it.  We wish for, hope for, and long for a wonderful, peace filled life that has good things coming our way every day.  But sometimes we get the opposite.

Sometimes life is filled with broken dreams, with broken promises, with painful situations that we wonder if we can endure.  But endure we must.  The Word tells us to press on, for there will come a day when we will win a prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus if we endure the race.

The other day Jim was cleaning off the front porch, preparing to re-stain the boards of the floor.  As he was moving the numerous plants, rocks, decorations and furniture from the porch, he accidently knocked over one of my plants.  Well, it just happened to be one of my favorite flowerpots ~ the one a dear friend had given me some years back.  As it hit the ground, it shattered into several pieces. . . .

He came to me to tell me that one of my pots had gotten broken.  I went out to see which one, and as I looked at the pot with its pretty decorations on it, lying there in the dirt and rocks, all broken beyond repair, tears came to my eyes.  Oh, I wasn’t mad at Jim, it was an accident.  And actually, I wasn’t even crying for the broken pot ~ as much as I loved it, and the one who gave it to me.

What really hit me as I looked at that pitiful pile of broken clay was how that pot is so much like we humans are.  We are just fragile pots of clay, simple earthen vessels, and sometimes we get broken.  Sometimes, our lives get turned upside down and we are shattered and useless ~ at least for the time being.  It is only when the master potter comes and picks up the broken pieces of our lives, and puts them carefully back together again that we can be whole once more.

The sad part is, or perhaps it is the good part, we will never be the same again.  There will be cracks that the whole world can see; there will be chips and nicks that will stand out, collect dust, and be rough around the edges.  But the good news is that when the Master puts us back together again, we will be even more beautiful.  We will become a lesson for others to learn from.

When my granddaughter saw the broken pot, she immediately said, “Oh, Grandi, someone broke your beautiful pot.  I am so sorry!”

I hugged her close and assured her that it was really okay.  I told her about how it was just a pot, and that while I would miss having it on my porch, the friend who gave it to me will still be just as dear and precious to me as ever, with or without the pot to remind me of her.  And then I suggested to her that perhaps we could glue it back together, just as a reminder of how all of us sometimes need to be put back together ~ one little piece at a time.  I will attempt to get that done here shortly.

It is true that many times, the Lord has to take the broken pieces of our lives and make us whole again.  Often it hurts, and sometimes it seems a life may never be mended again, but as long as we keep our eyes and our hearts on Him, it will eventually work out to be all right.  It may be in eternity, but it will be all right.

I’m grateful for the Potter’s influence in my life; may He put my brokenness back together again, and may I ever shine with praise and glory for Him ~ even in the midst of my brokenness.

But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.  Isaiah 68:4 (kjv)