As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. Jeremiah 18:6b

“Hmmm, this flower should be growing like crazy, with all this rain lately”, I mused. Sure enough, it had been raining and raining, so with plenty of summer sunshine to go with it, the plant should be doing great. But it was not. I had a nice clay pot with a nice green plant and no flowers. Sorta like a nice tree with lots of leaves, and no fruit.

I thought, “Bet it needs more dirt in that pot; I probably didn’t add enough topsoil”. I picked it up, and noticed the bottom was a darker shade of terra cotta. Upon closer inspection, I could make out a thread-like line. The clay pot was not visibly leaking. However it was leaking enough to discolor the bottom of the pot. And apparently it was losing enough water through the crack, taking soil nutrients with it, to hinder the plant from blooming.

I feel like a cracked clay pot sometimes. As I was mulling this over, flowerpot in my hand, I thought of the story in Jeremiah where the Lord sent him down to the home of someone who made clay pots. (Jeremiah 18:1-6)

The not good news is, sometimes we get cracked, and sometimes we leak. The good news is God made us, and He can seal the cracks we have. He can, and will, fill us again- and we’ll flower! More good news!

Today I plan to take an inventory to see if there’s a leak, and come to You to repair and take care of it. Thank you, Lord for the infilling and healing through your wonderful Holy Spirit.

Sally Ireland Kennedy sallyikennedy@bellsouth.net is the author of Irish Thursdays: More Little Parables, Words from the Heart, and 52 Little Parables from Ireland. She is a songwriter and the creator of Poppy the Penguin® preschool music video series. Sally lives in south Florida, with her husband Ben. http://www.sallyikennedy.com