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THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER VOLUME 7, NUMBER 45, NOVEMBER 11, 2007 THE VASE On the shelf it sits as it has for years The vase given us by friends It doesn’t hold flowers or decorative arrangements It holds memories. Why is it that a beautiful thing By virtue of the years gone by Begins to loose its magnetism It no longer draws the eye? When it began I just can’t say What day, what hour, what minute Maybe someone hit the shelf, maybe too many memories But at sometime that beautiful vase developed a crack in it. I just didn’t notice, none of us did I guess ‘cause it was always there But that crack that had its foundation marred Began its strength to tear. Its funny how a thing of beauty Upon which your eyes did often rest Can begin to lose its strength and you not see Can begin to fail each test. I guess it could hold no more memories Its strength just was no longer there As the crack began to widen And with other cracks to share. One day I happened to glance in the direction of the shelf Intending the vase to see But it was gone, it was not there And in its place were pieces I cried the day the vase shattered And broken fragments of memories seemed scattered with the pieces It’s just a vase, rarely notice, we’ll get a new one, you’ll see They missed the point because I know – that broken vase is me. Anonymous
As I have often mentioned during sermons and Bible classes, if you have a gathering of 160 people, there are 160 different stories. For some, their lives are moving along wonderfully. Their health is great, their jobs are rewarding, the marriages are satisfying, and for the moment – all is well. But for others, that may very well not be the case. Most Christians that I know are not complainers. They try to be as upbeat as possible, put a smile on their faces even when they don’t feel like smiling, and keep their burdens and their problems to themselves. With most, even when there are troubles, they are not going to tell you. Whether that is good or bad is open to discussion. It is awfully difficult to “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” when we don’t share with each other the problems that we are facing in life. There is another side to this. In Philippians 2, in the context of exhorting brethren to have the mind of Christ, Paul wrote in verse 4, “Look not every man on his own things, but every man of the things of others.” Paul wasn’t talking about being nosy, or concerning ourselves with things that are decidedly not our business. He was saying, however, that the feelings, interests, needs and concerns of our brethren are to be put above our own. We have to take care of our own needs, that is certain, but we can subordinate our own needs to the “things of others.” Indeed, that is the essence of Christianity. We sure do live in a busy world. For many of us there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done that we need, or want, to do. It is so easy to focus upon ourselves and our own fleshly families and to not really notice the lives of our brethren. As already mentioned, most of the time brethren say very little about their problems, if they say anything at all. But they are there. If we will but keep our eyes open, really talk to one another, really see one another – perhaps we will be able to see if there are any “cracks” developing in the lives and spirits of any of our brothers and sisters. If such should be discovered, who knows whether or not we can be the glue that holds it together and makes it good as new? Greg Litmer
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