Flawed and Cracked, He still loves me...

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream. 'I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.'

The old woman smiled, 'Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?' That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them.'

For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.'

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.



In cleaning up and deleting a lot of my emails, I came across the one above. A story someone had sent me. I thought to myself as I read it, "how ironic I find this now". I especially focus on the last "paragraph". 'Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each ahve that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.'

Sometimes you have to look real deep to find good.... sometimes it is there on the surface.... and sometimes it is so hidden you wonder if they have any good in them. But they surely do. God gives each of us Good. We may not want others to see that good in us, but it is there. It is in the kind moments when you speak to your children. It is in the moments when you are touched by a stranger's pain and reach out a hand. Sometimes you just feel it.

Have you watered any flowers along the way? I picture myself as the cracked and flawed pot. By the grace of God, He loves me and accepts me just as I am. He doesn't look for faults, He doesn't diss me, He doesn't say cruel and hateful things to me. He just loves me.

In spite of the fact He let the blower on my air conditioner in the car go out last night. He still loves me. And I hang on to that.

Blessings!