"Broken but not destroyed"
This week CBC news reported that what looked like a cyclone had hit the inside of a potters pottery shop! I happened to hear about it on a radio interview. Must have been a shock for the Potter coming into his shop that morning and finding huge mess.
He went right into his Sherlock Holmes mode explaining to the interviewer that "according to the evidence" he found in his shop, he surmised that the bear, (ok it was a bear and not a cyclone) had probably entered by the front door. He guessed that when he'd left the shop the evening before he'd probably not closed the door hard enough for it to actually latch shut. So, the curious bear simply needed to push on the door and wa-llaa he was inside. Meanwhile the door must have closed behind him so when he wanted to leave there was no exit available, and that's when the real trouble, (clyclone) began.
You see his shop tables were loaded with finished clay products, set aside drying before being fired in the kiln. Clay pots everywhere in different stages of drying. Some of course being bone dry so very brittle and easy to break, others in a more damp stage so more prone to bending or being marred but not totally broken, but non the less also now useless.
You see, when the bear realized there was no apparent exit he panicked and jumped up onto the tables checking out the windows which looked like exits to him. You can imagine what happened. Pottery being knocked over or off the tables, stepped on, lots of it falling off the tables smashing to pieces all over the floors.
Meanwhile the bear is frantic, moving back and forth on the tables looking through windows checking them trying to find his way out. In the process of course he's destroying about a months worth of pottery ready for the kiln, making the place look like, a cyclone hit it.
If you and I would have been one of those pots we would have been frightened to no end. You see there is no controlling this deadly cyclone! It came out of nowhere, totally unexpected and completely out of control. Just like life where we can be hit with a curve-ball kind of cyclone without warning. And, we are "marked" by these events. We can be destroyed, bent, hurt physically, mentally etc. These included acts of God, wars, accidents, whatever, stuff happens.
We strive for a comfortable life, we try to be good and so expect being treated fairly, respected, honored and rewarded with a good, safe, easy comfortable existence. Where in the world did we get that idea? I think of the Saints in the Bible and realize they had terrible lives! And they were "Saints" would you believe! St. Paul for example gave us a list of his troubles which included being shipwrecked in storms at sea , imprisoned, stoned and left for dead, which by the way damaged his eyesight and hands to the point where he could not write and had to dictate his letters and only sign them due to the severe injuries to his hands. And that's just the beginning of his troubles!
Here's what he says, "We are handicapped on all sides, but we are never frustrated; we are puzzled, but never in despair. We are persecuted, but we never have to stand it alone: we may be knocked down but we are never knocked out! " 2 Corinthians 4:7
"Never far from death, yet here we are alive, always "going through it" yet never "going under". We know sorrow, yet our joy is inextinguishable. We have "nothing to bless ourselves with" yet we bless many others with true riches. We are penniless, and yet in reality we have everything worth having." 2 Cor. 6: 3-13
Those cups the cyclone bear wreaked can be restored. The potter will take these break them up into a bin and cover them with water. After a time they will become soaked and soft. The water is then drained off and the clay allowed to dry. As it drys it is pounded and wedged to remove all the air bubbles and prepared to be reshaped again. These broken pots will once again be reborn.
Interestingly, The potter estimates the bear left its mark on about two dozen pots and plans to fire those. "We try to work with nature," is what he said.
He went right into his Sherlock Holmes mode explaining to the interviewer that "according to the evidence" he found in his shop, he surmised that the bear, (ok it was a bear and not a cyclone) had probably entered by the front door. He guessed that when he'd left the shop the evening before he'd probably not closed the door hard enough for it to actually latch shut. So, the curious bear simply needed to push on the door and wa-llaa he was inside. Meanwhile the door must have closed behind him so when he wanted to leave there was no exit available, and that's when the real trouble, (clyclone) began.
You see his shop tables were loaded with finished clay products, set aside drying before being fired in the kiln. Clay pots everywhere in different stages of drying. Some of course being bone dry so very brittle and easy to break, others in a more damp stage so more prone to bending or being marred but not totally broken, but non the less also now useless.
You see, when the bear realized there was no apparent exit he panicked and jumped up onto the tables checking out the windows which looked like exits to him. You can imagine what happened. Pottery being knocked over or off the tables, stepped on, lots of it falling off the tables smashing to pieces all over the floors.
Meanwhile the bear is frantic, moving back and forth on the tables looking through windows checking them trying to find his way out. In the process of course he's destroying about a months worth of pottery ready for the kiln, making the place look like, a cyclone hit it.
If you and I would have been one of those pots we would have been frightened to no end. You see there is no controlling this deadly cyclone! It came out of nowhere, totally unexpected and completely out of control. Just like life where we can be hit with a curve-ball kind of cyclone without warning. And, we are "marked" by these events. We can be destroyed, bent, hurt physically, mentally etc. These included acts of God, wars, accidents, whatever, stuff happens.
We strive for a comfortable life, we try to be good and so expect being treated fairly, respected, honored and rewarded with a good, safe, easy comfortable existence. Where in the world did we get that idea? I think of the Saints in the Bible and realize they had terrible lives! And they were "Saints" would you believe! St. Paul for example gave us a list of his troubles which included being shipwrecked in storms at sea , imprisoned, stoned and left for dead, which by the way damaged his eyesight and hands to the point where he could not write and had to dictate his letters and only sign them due to the severe injuries to his hands. And that's just the beginning of his troubles!
Here's what he says, "We are handicapped on all sides, but we are never frustrated; we are puzzled, but never in despair. We are persecuted, but we never have to stand it alone: we may be knocked down but we are never knocked out! " 2 Corinthians 4:7
"Never far from death, yet here we are alive, always "going through it" yet never "going under". We know sorrow, yet our joy is inextinguishable. We have "nothing to bless ourselves with" yet we bless many others with true riches. We are penniless, and yet in reality we have everything worth having." 2 Cor. 6: 3-13
Those cups the cyclone bear wreaked can be restored. The potter will take these break them up into a bin and cover them with water. After a time they will become soaked and soft. The water is then drained off and the clay allowed to dry. As it drys it is pounded and wedged to remove all the air bubbles and prepared to be reshaped again. These broken pots will once again be reborn.
Interestingly, The potter estimates the bear left its mark on about two dozen pots and plans to fire those. "We try to work with nature," is what he said.
“There are cracks in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
~ Leonard Cohen
~ Leonard Cohen
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