Many years ago, I had several clay flower pots crack and break apart. As an avid gardener, I loved the iconic look of the clay pots on my porch, and I was sad they had met an untimely demise. I contemplated what to do with the broken pieces since I’m resourceful and hate throwing things away if there is any chance I might repurpose them. I wondered if I might use them to create some garden art like I had seen in some garden shops. I grabbed some spray paint, paint brushes, and an old can of acrylic latex and pondered my next step.
I looked at the broken pieces, and a thought came to me. I wondered how many times our lives are much like those broken pieces. We make plans for our life that somehow go awry – oftentimes through no action of our own – we wake up with figurative jagged edges, raw from indecision, uncertainty, or upheaval, feeling like we are half of what we once were. There was no warning and now we are left with the task of figuring it out oftentimes alone or with little support. It’s a very sad and lonely space to be. We have all likely been there.
Then I looked at a large clay pot fragment and the phrase “grow where you are planted” came to mind. I painted the base color and then added the words, contemplating the meaning in my life. I thought to myself that I cannot always control where I land in life, but I can decide for God to use me wherever I am at. I can decide to grow where I am planted, even if I did not plan on being planted there. Even if I am not happy about being planted there. God knows where we are at even when we are alone, and it reminds me of the well-known verse Jeremiah 29:11. “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’”
In this hope in God’s sovereignty, we can praise and thank God through uncertainty and even in suffering. We can trust that the declaration in Psalms 139 is true in our lives. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.” May it be so, Lord, even in our doubts, even in our brokenness. Make us new in You.
Jessica Carlson, Coach
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