Monday September 2, 2024

 

A friend posted this photo on his Instagram profile a few days ago.

With the words: "Second life."

To which I gave my "like" - and responded: "Me..."

Because isn't that an accurate picture of all of us? 

In the photo, it looks like a pretty pot. Except for the obvious fracture it suffered from top to bottom, it looks shiny, a nice blue color, and free of any other dents or cracks.

I don't know what happened to the pot to cause it to be broken as completely as it evidently was. The fall or implosion must have been quite severe.

But the reality that impacted me the most is this: the pot, by itself, could not do anything to be repaired and restored. If there were not a visionary, a committed and skilled, determined and loving gardener who saw that pot, visualizing in his mind and heart the beauty and usefulness it still had, and then taking the time and effort to tenderly mend it, that pot would have ended up in the trash forever. 

But my friend, the gardener, saw the "second life" this pot could have and provide if only he would take a needle and thread and sew it together again. For him, the pot was not ruined, useless, or even ugly - simply because it had been broken. For him, the pot could be resurrected so to speak to a new life, and a new beauty and a new usefulness, after he had laid his merciful, tender and loving hands on it. 

And so it is with us human beings. In some way or another, we are all broken pots. Some perhaps more shiny and more colorful, freer of bumps and cracks than others. But broken in some areas of our lives, in our mind, in our heart, in our body, in our spirit all the same. No human pot goes through an entire life unscathed, intact, completely whole. All of us, somewhere and at some time, break. Because we break ourselves - or because others break us - or because the difficulties and adversities of life itself break us. So yes: we are broken – every one of us. 

But we don't have to stay like that. That's the good news! That is the news that brings us hope and new life!

We have a Gardener in heaven who, like my friend, is visionary: who sees us beyond our brokenness. Who sees us not only as we are when we are reduced to pieces. But Someone who sees us how we can be again with His divine hands on us. 

We have a Gardener who, like my friend, is committed: who does not count the price of sewing us back up as too high to pay. But Someone who one day began the good work in us, and who is determined to complete it in our lives.

We have a Gardener who, like my friend, is skilled: who does not fix us and repairs us to an inferior and secondary life. But to a second life, just as or often even more beautiful and more useful than our first life. 

We have a Gardener who, like my friend, is determined: who takes the time and makes the effort to restore us, no matter how long and how painful the repair process is for Him. With absolute resolve and persistence, He begins the work of putting us back together, stitch by patient stitch, until He finishes.

We have a Gardener who, like my friend, is loving: who, no matter how destroyed and shattered we are at any given moment in our lives, has always loved us, still loves us, and always will love us. Someone who expresses that eternal love with unconditional grace and mercy. Someone who takes the broken pieces of our lives in His hands full of kindness and goodness, and with utmost tenderness puts us back together.

I wonder if my friend, the gardener from Medellín, had any idea back then how deeply his photo was going to speak to my life. That I too would not see the "ugliness" of the breakage and the sewn repair of that pot. That I was not going to callously ask why he didn't just throw away the supposedly ruined pot away and buy a new one. 

No. In that blue pot once broken but then given a "second life", I saw God's grace and hope for my own life! I too could be patched up and made whole again! I too could become beautiful and useful again! I too could bring joy to the Heavenly Gardener of my soul again, and experience His joy and His delight when He saw me -His workmanship and work of art - restored to wholeness and beauty, worth and service once again! 

 

"The Lord is near to the brokenhearted,

and save those whose spirit is crushed."

(Psalm 34:18)

"He heals the brokenhearted, 

and binds his wounds."

(Psalm 147:3)

 

To end in gratitude and adoration,

listen to this wonderful song, GLORIOUS RUINS, here: 

https://reflexionesparavivir.com/video/490/glorious-ruins-hillsong-worship

 

(image by @un_jardin_en_medellin)

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