An Indian water bearer walked several miles each day carrying water from the stream to his house. He carried the water in two clay pots hung on the end of a pole that rested across his shoulders. One of the pots had a crack in it and while it was as full as the other when he left the stream, by the time he arrived at the house it was always half empty.
After two years of this the cracked pot felt so ashamed and wretched at its failure to carry a full load, and the extra work that this caused the carrier that it apologized. The carrier, however, responded by saying, “Have you not noticed that there are only flowers on your side of the path? I’ve always known about your flaw, and so I planted seeds on the side of the path where I knew the water leaking from your side would water them. The flowers that you have grown have brought beauty to my table.”
It is a fact of life that we live in a broken world and that each of us are flawed in some way, and sometimes all we can see is the brokenness and the damage that it causes. But the grace of God is such that when we submit ourselves to His loving touch, we may see instead that our lives in fact produce great beauty that makes our world a better place.