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by Toni Babcock
Recently, I was cleaning an apartment when I noticed an interesting shadow box hanging on the wall. The box framed a collection of broken shards. Each shard was carefully mounted to showcase its shape and faded design. The woman I was cleaning for told me the shards were found in a southwestern desert over sixty years ago. The person who originally discovered them had no use for the broken pieces and gave them to her because she had a special interest in indigenous people.
The shards were stored for many years and eventually mounted in the shadow box. The potter in the desert never knew someday the broken vessel would become a treasured artifact hanging in this woman’s home and the subject of this article.
As I went about my day, I thought about the shards. They reminded me of the brokenness we all experience in life and how God treasures us (broken pieces and all), so it is a good thing to surrender our shards to His keeping. What we do with the pieces is up to us. If we think what is broken is of no value, we will sweep up the shattered vessel and discard ourselves as an unfortunate accident. If we see great value in our brokenness, we will hand ourselves over to God and expect He is going to make something beautiful.
God finds His people in the desert and transforms them into His peculiar treasure. The psalmist wrote, “I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind, I am like a broken vessel,” yet by the end of the psalm he pulls out of his despair and writes, “Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD,” (Psalm 31: 12 & 24 KJV).
Toni Babcock is a freelance Christian writer from South St. Paul. She enjoys writing short stories for children and young people, as well as memoirs, poetry and spiritual essays. Article Source: https://www.faithwriters.com CHRISTIAN WRITER
