AUGUST 6, 2014
Broken
But Beautiful
Read: Jeremiah
18:1-6
[The vessel] was marred . . . ; so he made it again into another
vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. —Jeremiah 18:4
Recently, my daughter
showed me her collection of sea glass. Also known as beach glass, the varied
bits of colored glass are sometimes pieces of pottery but often they are pieces
of shattered glass bottles. Originally the glass had a purpose, but then it was
casually thrown away and became broken.
If the discarded glass
ends up in an ocean, its journey is just beginning. As it is relentlessly
tossed about by currents and tides, its jagged edges are ground down by the
sand and waves and eventually are smoothed away and rounded off. The result is
something beautiful. The jewel-like sea glass has found new life and is
treasured by collectors and artists.
In a similar way, a
broken life can be renewed when it is touched by God’s love and grace. In the
Old Testament, we read that when the prophet Jeremiah watched a potter working,
he noticed that if an object was marred the potter simply reshaped it (Jer.
18:1-6). God explained that in His hands the people of ancient Israel were like
clay, which He would shape as He saw best.
We are never too badly
broken for God to reshape. He loves us in spite of our imperfections and past
mistakes, and He desires to make us beautiful.
Have Thine own way,
Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I
am the clay;
Mold me and make me
after Thy will,
While I am waiting,
yielded and still. —Pollard
When melted by trial,
we can be fully molded by the Potter.
Insight
Jeremiah is often
referred to as the weeping prophet because of the disheartening messages he was
often called to deliver to the people of Israel. This title is also appropriate
considering the fact that he also wrote the book of Lamentations. In today’s
passage, God shows Jeremiah that there is no situation that is not redeemable.
No matter the mar, no matter the defect, God can remold and reshape the people
of Israel into something useful and beautiful. This is the same message that Paul
delivers to the church of Corinth. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a
new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new”
(2 Cor. 5:17). God takes the old and broken and fashions it into something new
and useful.
Source:
Our Daily Bread 2012
