A Little Broken

I glanced at it and knew it was teetering too close to the edge. The shelf had too much junk on it, piled high, and it was pushing it a little off balance.  Yet I continued to dust and didn't take the minute, no seconds, it would take to move it to safety.  And then I saw it in slow motion... and it hit the floor and shattered.  Ok, maybe that's a little too dramatic.  It just broke. 

As you can see, the picture is still intact, and for that I am grateful.  See, this is a piece of Bybee pottery, made by the same family for generations in Richmond, Kentucky... until the family became too sick to continue to make it.  Bybee Pottery is one of the only things I collect, and it's because my Mom and I so enjoyed going to the factory (a little shack, really...) sleeping in our cars, breakfast at the gas station across the road, and standing in line from about 530 or so so you could be one of the first ones in the door.  Shelves of pottery lined up, and it was a free for all.  Grab what you want, and set the rest back on the shelf... and it was truly first come first serve.  Cheap stuff... well, cheaper than if you bought it at a retailer.  Kind of made this bull in a china shop girl a little scared, all of that clanging as people put the pottery back on the shelf.

So now, the Bybee factory is shut down, and this is probably the last piece of fishing boy pottery I'll have.  Bought for me by Wallace a couple of years ago as a birthday present at the Honey Festival.  So I'm hoping I can maybe frame that one little piece as a reminder...

A reminder that we can get to close to the edge, and realize it.  Like my shelf, we can pile stuff too tight, pushing the important things in life to the edge and cluttering our lives with stuff that really doesn't matter (like the two $2 candles I had sat in the floor as I dusted, and remained intact.  Why?  Why, Lauren???) When we do get close to the edge and off balance, we better not stay close, because it's really easy to fall off.  And when we're that close to the edge, God may or may not be our safety net... because He sees beauty in the broken.  And that even when I feel broken, I can still be reclaimed to make something beautiful. 

Now guess I better go back to dusting. Somehow, I don't think a little piece of broken pottery is an excuse to give it up, especially when it's admittedly the first time since the summer that I've gave the place a good makeover.