It was a mad dash this morning getting the grandkids out the door for school. Their daddy arrived a little late to pick them up. In the rush to gather backpacks, lunches and tie shoes my oldest grandson, Carson, knocked over a glass bottle as he rambunctiously shoved his arm through the sleeve of his jacket.

Chards of glass scattered everywhere as he cried out,

“I’m sorry NeeNee, I am so very sorry! I didn’t mean to break it.” He reached down to pick up the jagged pieces strewn across the floor. “I’ll clean it up, NeeNee, I am so sorry, please forgive me.”

I pulled his arm away before his hand could touch the glass and said,

“It’s OK buddy, it’s not the first time something has been broken and it won’t be the last. I am just thankful it was the bottle and not you. We can replace things, but we can’t replace people.”

He gave me a big hug and said, “Thank you NeeNee for not being angry at me; I love you.” As my son-in-law ushered the kids out the door, he turned to me,

“That’s the bottle that took you so much time to cut with the glass cutter, isn’t it?” I nodded my head in affirmation. Indeed, it was. The very bottle that I had soaked, scrubbed and hand cut to fit a special order display stand which remained unbroken.

I cleaned up the broken glass and placed the display stand in a drawer for safekeeping until I can construct a new bottle from scratch. It will be a labor of love to show my grandson even broken things can be recreated and once again assume a position of worth on the special display stand.

Recreated things will never be what they were before their fall; they will be better and positioned in a safe place, by the creator, to prevent any future breakage.

Isn’t that what God does with our brokenness? When the chards of our broken life are scattered in every direction, and we cry out,

“I’m sorry Jesus, I am so very sorry; please forgive me and don’t be angry!

He responds to us in love and assures us that even broken people can be recreated and made new. And so, our creator fashions us into a vessel that is worthy of display.

“…I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do…” Jeremiah 18: 2-4

The greatest potter and glass blower in our life is Jesus.