Broken Shards
I live in a land where broken pottery abounds. Shards strewn about with the dust and the rocks, the former as commonplace as the latter. When I first came here, then as a simple tourist, I remember excitedly finding a small, broken earthenware piece that could fit in my palm. “Can I keep it?” I asked our guide. “Sure, why not,” he shrugged and moved on, a local who found the delight of a college student amusing at best. Fourteen years have passed, and though I now reside here, that small, broken piece of pottery still is with me—perhaps because it quietly tells a story about how God values what we tend to overlook.”
One man’s junk is another man’s treasure- isn’t that how the saying goes? Thousands of years ago, pottery was the commonplace vessel to hold a wide variety of things. Some were inscribed or stamped with seals, and when found today, become important puzzle pieces of the past. Others, like the one I found, were unremarkable, a small piece of some pot, worthless and fragile to most.
Commonplace. Ordinary. As we crest into the new year, goals and resolutions abound. People of all walks of life are finding ways and writing down determinations to better themselves. And for some, there is nothing wrong with that. Although for many of us, walking into 2026 may feel more like verses eight and nine of 2nd Corinthians 4, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. “
I can see the slow nodding of heads, the commonplace areas of our lives that feel like these verses. The broken shards seem strewn about. Maybe you are even wondering how a vessel like that could possibly be useful anymore. If we back up to verse seven, it says, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” There is nothing wrong with dreaming big dreams with God. And there is also nothing wrong with being a jar of clay. Jars crack, they crumble, they are often broken. One could argue they might not be the best place to store a treasure. But God is a masterful potter, the creator of these jars, the one who gave us the limitations, weakness and fragility of flesh. The same God who came and took on fragile flesh, like we all sang about last month. He knows what it is to be a vessel, broken and poured out. He knows intimately the reality of verses 8 and 9 that so many are carrying with them into 2026. And He bestows honor on these vessels. He gathers the commonplace shards that we have, the pieces others disregard and walk over, He puts them back together and places the ultimate treasure inside. There’s nothing common about that, no matter how ordinary it may look from the outside. Do not scoff at the ordinary as you reflect on the coming year. Remember that ordinary things in the hands of the masterful Creator are vessels full of treasure and valuable indeed. Are you willing to hold the treasure, however He sees fit?
