Cracked Pots

Sometimes we feel like cracked pots.

An old story tells of a water-bearer in India who daily carried two pots on a pole carried across his neck. Between the master’s house and river he walked back and forth for two years. One pot was cracked and slowly leaked water along the path. Each day the water-bearer arrived at the house with only one and a half pots of water.

After two years, the cracked pot, feeling embarrassed and undignified compared to the other pot, apologized to the man.

“I have made your work more difficult. I am not as good as the perfect pot. I am ashamed that my flaw increases your labor.”

The compassionate water-bearer, replied, “When we return to the house, notice all the pretty flowers along the side of the path.”

As they journeyed that day, the pot realized that beautiful flowers of many colors adorned one side of the dusty path. But, the pot saw, the flowers only grew on one side.

Returning to the master’s house, the water-bearer explained, “I have always known that you were cracked, and I chose to use you for this purpose. I planted flower seeds of many varieties along your side of the path. Every day as we walk back from the stream, you water them. For two years I have picked these flowers and decorated the master’s table. This saved me time from having to water them myself.”

The water-bearer then said, “You see, it was because you were a cracked pot that I could use you for this purpose.”

We live in a world that idolizes seeming perfection. Photo-shopped magazine covers and internet ads show so-called perfect bodies. Television and movies are able to present flawless scenes. When enraptured with the art of such scenes, we forget that the actors and director may have spent all day filming that one scene, making dozens of mistakes in the process.

Our facebook world allows people to portray the social-media image of their choosing. The person who boasts of the perfect marriage online forgot to tell you about the argument he had with his wife last week. And when your friend posted her pictures from the perfect vacation, she failed to mention that she felt jealous when you went to the beach last year for your anniversary.

God wants to use cracked pots. He designed it that way. Our flaws, though they may never make it to a photo-shopped screen image, do not limit the Creator from working through our lives.

Brennan Manning writes, “Despite our physical cracks, intellectual limitations, emotional impairments, and spiritual fissures, we are providentially equipped to fulfill the unique purpose of our existence.”

The Lord stores His gifts not in Lennox china but in jars of clay – common, earthenware vessels.

As we write, we can resist the urge to compare our writing to others.

“I will never write like John Jakes or Donald McCaig!”

But God does not compare us to the other pot. He wants to use our cracked ones. And as substance seeps out of our pen, it waters countless seeds along the way, producing a harvest of beauty to be enjoyed and shared.