The Urn
Posted by: tz8cy5 <tz8cy5@...>
Somewhere is the Far East, there are craftsman who make very large
earthen urns. Like any other pottery, they are formed, fired in a kiln, hand
painted and glazed. These are urns that stand 3 to 4 feet tall, and when they
are finished they are truly works of art, and valuable, perhaps $300-400.
When he is finished, the craftsman takes a mallet, and complete breaks the
urn into many pieces, destroying what was a work of art.
At this point, you may ask yourself, what's the point. Why would you
destroy a beautiful work of art in the first place? Let me continue.
After the urn is in pieces, the craftsman painstakingly begins to put
the urn back together, almost like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Not the
smallest piece is ignored. Every piece is fitted and glued into place, so
that neither the design nor form is any different than the original. The
finished product, although hard to believe, is more beautiful than the before
it was broken. Every piece is in place, but the brokenness offers a special
beauty that the original could never have possessed. The glue that holds it
all together is precious itself, since without it, there would be just a pile
of pieces. But even more important, that glue is made of gold, and what once
was just an ordinary, beautiful urn, has now been transformed from it's
broken state, to a whole one that is far more precious and of much greater
value.
This is a reflection of our lives. Once we have been broken, and allow
God to heal us and mend us with His love, we become so much more precious
than we were when He first made us because now we are truly His. God is
love, and when he puts us back together with his endless love, we become
priceless. Who could ever allow another to cheapen or determine their value,
when the creator is the only one who could make us to begin with.
Author Unknown