Broken

I've been thinking lately about people that I know and have known who are broken. I guess in a sense, we've all been broken at some point or another if we've lived any amount of time.

I'm reminded of the verse in Psalm when David was lamenting his situation of being scorned and hated by his enemies. In Psalm 31:12, he says, "I am forgotten by them as though I were dead; I have become like broken pottery. "

Have you ever felt that way? When the world just seems so harsh and nobody seemed to care? When an enemy in your life treated you with such contempt that you just felt broken, shattered, unfixable?

But... Isn't it great when there's a "but?" David's came in verse 14 when he goes on to say, "But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, 'You are my God.'" David realized even at his lowest, he wasn't alone. And God wasn't finished with him yet!

Other examples in the Bible about pottery include Jeremiah's account of visiting a potter's house to receive a word from the Lord. One part of this account that I never took note of before is when he says in Jeremiah 18:4 "But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him." Even when the pot was marred, the potter didn't give up on it. He shaped it "as seemed best to him." Maybe it's not always the way we think it should be done, but He shapes us as it seems best to Him. And the results will be more amazing than we can fathom and so much better than we could have conjured up on our own.

Don't give up on yourself if life or even people leave you feeling broken or marred. Because God sure hasn't given up on you.

The Pottery Collection

By Edie Rowland

Some are ornate, others plain.
Some are rich and lavish, others quite ordinary.
Some are the picture of perfection,
While others have been cracked and mended, perhaps many times over.
Some are filled with dirt or cobwebs,
While others are sparkling clean.
There are some large, some small.
Some demand attention, while others fade into the background.
Some strong and unscathed, others frail and damaged.
But they share three things: They are all pots…
Made of the same clay…
Made by the same Potter.
And He loves each one as if it were His only masterpiece.