I was very clumsy as a child, well, and awkward, but mostly clumsy. I was notorious for spilling drinks in the car. My parents would ban me from being able to hold my own drink in the car until I was like fourteen.  I also had butterfingers and on occasion would drop a dish and it would shatter into pieces on the floor. I always felt so ashamed about breaking or spilling things, especially when I broke something that belonged to my Mom. Even getting older, I remember being devastated after breaking my Mom’s white casserole dish when I was a teenager. Yep, still remember that to this day, and still feel bad about it. (Mom, guess what you are getting for Christmas this year…) Of course it wasn’t a big deal to my Mom, she would always provide comfort and say that it’s okay and that it was an accident. But I would always feel bad that I broke something that belonged to my Mom and ultimately the fact that it would cost her money to replace the broken item.

It’s hard to not feel ashamed or guilty when you break something. In fact the natural reaction is to either hide it or try to fix it. Maybe a little superglue will put the broken vase back together if it’s just cracked or has a piece missing or if it’s beyond repair we quickly clean up the mess and hide it, so no one sees that the  accident even occurred.

I imagine our life is like a beautiful porcelain vase that belongs to God and as we live life the imperfections, brokenness, weaknesses, and sins become some of the cracks in our vases. We may become ashamed of the cracks or broken pieces in our vase, and so we try to take the superglue of our own insecurities to try to cover up these cracks in order to appear to be as perfect or whole to those around us, including God. We feel like we need to have it all together or perfectly whole vases before we can approach God. But we can’t hide our brokenness from God like we can others. We attempt to desperately hold it together with the adhesive of trying to be perfect. However, God is the ultimate superglue of perfection that fills in the gaps of our imperfection to make us whole again.

Or maybe we think that God is going to get angry and yell at us for breaking the vase. Instead, He comforts us and says, “It’s okay, I still love you. I have made a way for you to be made whole again through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.”

Instead of trying to fix or put the broken pieces of vase in our life back together before we go to God because we are ashamed of the condition of our vase, we need to come just as we are with all of the broken pieces of who we are. Offer up your broken vase to God and allow him to put the pieces back together filling in the cracks and provide healing making it stronger, unique, perfect, showing character, and beauty.

Broken vase and all don’t forget that you are His Beloved. That is who you are. And that is nothing to be ashamed of or hide.

“God heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Psalm 147:3