Shattered.

“For it is God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness.” – 2 Corinthians 4:6

Several years ago, a friend gifted me a handmade, ceramic coffee mug and ashtray that she had found at a craft fair. Both found a lot of use during my first year of ministry. Unfortunately, for both, it was short-lived. The coffee mug fell in the sink while washing dishes and shattered. The ashtray broke during a healing service when it was knocked off a wooden pedestal accidentally. Like most ceramics who have faced similar fates, they were beyond the power of super-glue to heal them, and sadly found a new home in the trash. 

            St. Paul, writing to the church in Corinth, describes holding a treasure in clay jars. The clay jars represent human fragility. The treasure is the extraordinary power of God to make known the glory of God in Jesus, God’s Holy Spirit. God chose to give this treasure, the awesome free gift of faith, the most precious treasure one can have, to easily shattered hearts, discouraged minds, and overwhelmed bodies. They become witnesses to God’s power to restore wholeness. God’s Spirit raises God’s own to trust in the one who was crucified for them, Jesus. These shattered vessels offer testimony that is by God’s gracious gift alone that we live.

            There will always be difficult days. Sin, death, and evil will always attempt to convince us that they have won. Our life may seem empty of God’s loving and merciful presence. There are days we might feel like giving up, that nothing is ever going to change or get better. We may be tempted to run after quick fixes, reacting to the temporary, failing to trust in the eternal and permanent God, who is holding the world together. We may feel like broken vessels, damaged goods, that no one wants. 

            Yet, the Spirit of God, St. Paul reminds us, that raised Jesus Christ from the dead still lives in you and will raise you up. His and our testimony of God’s saving power is, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in us the body of the death of Jesus to that the life of Jesus may be visible in our bodies.” (2 Cor 4:8-10) God’s beloved carry the death of Jesus because he has carried your death to the cross already. The very God who breathed life into the clay and raised Jesus from the dead breathes new life in you. This power of God repairs the unrepairable and redeems the unredeemable. God makes whole all that is fragile and shattered.