Treasure in a Cracked Cup

A letter from Paul, who loved them

Dear friends,

I want to tell you a secret about the way God works. It is so good I can hardly hold it still.

You know those plain clay cups. The cheap ones, with a little crack running down the side, the ones you would never set out on a shelf for company to see. That is what you are. That is what I am too.

I know. It does not sound like a kind thing to say yet.

God did not pour his treasure into gold. He did not save the most precious thing in all the world for the strongest, the shiniest, the ones who never crack. He chose us. Ordinary, breakable, tired people. He set the light of Jesus right down inside our cracked clay.

And there is a reason for that.

When the light shines out, everyone can see that the light is HIS, and not ours. When a little cracked cup glows in the dark, nobody says, "What a wonderful cup." You lean close and say, "Oh, look at the light inside it."

Long before, when the world was dark and empty, God spoke and the light came. That same God has spoken again, and this time the light came on inside of us.

Dear ones, I have been so tired. I have been knocked down, and chased, and shut away in dark places. Some days I felt like a cup that had been dropped one time too many. Pressed on every side, but not crushed. Puzzled, but never all alone. Knocked flat, but never thrown away. Always, always, underneath me, the hand of God.

The cracks are where the light gets out.

On the outside, I am wearing thin. My hands shake. My body is wearing down like an old coat. Some days you feel that too, small and worn out and sure you are not strong enough to carry anything that matters.

But on the inside, something new is happening, every single day. While the old cup wears away, the real you, the you God is making, is growing brighter and stronger and more alive. You cannot always feel it happening. It is happening anyway. From the inside out, a little more each morning, God is making you new.

So we do not stare at the things we can see, the tired days, the cracks. Those last only a little while. We look toward the things we cannot see yet: the light, the newness, the home that is coming.

And it has already begun. Right now, today, even on the hard days, the light is already shining in you. You are already being made new. It started the moment Jesus came inside, and the making-new will never stop. It only grows brighter and deeper and gladder, forever.

You are not too small. You were never meant to be the treasure.

You are the cup that gets to hold him.

With all my love,
Paul