A Broken Cup

a beautiful teacup, sitting on a shelf...

A broken cup.  Unusable by all logical reasoning.

Once beheld as beautiful, whole and waiting to be filled, it met with trouble unforeseen, leaving it in a shamble. Used, abused and discarded like so much trash; the cup was left to lie useless and disrespected.

However, shards of brokenness were not forgotten by the Master, who took the scattered pieces and fit them back together, painstakingly matching the pattern and form; admiring and remembering how He created the cup for His purposes from the beginning.

He reassembles all the brokenness, all the shattered pieces that resulted from a life of ugliness, hurt and pain. Then He adds something more.

He carefully applies glistening gold as seams, highlighting the breaks as if treasured trophies, smoothing over the pain of heartache and mending what was thought to be unuseable.

He creates, once again, something new; 

something better, 

something stronger, 

something wiser and more valuable...

And yes, even more beautiful than it was before.

Oh yes, this cup is used again - filled by the Master Himself - for His purposes and for His glory. Perhaps some might have thought this cup was useless, abandoned and forlorn. 

But oh, they couldn't have been more wrong.

For this cup is even stronger after being broken, taken low. It's scars testify of a treacherous past, bespeak of humility.  And the golden seams of compassion painstakingly applied by the Master have enabled this beautiful cup to pour out precious love to others as never before.

O LORD, allow me to be a broken cup in Your ever-capable hands, all for Your glory.  And thank You for the beautiful broken cups you have brought into my life, for they have poured Your precious love into me far more than I could ever deserve.