The Broken Dish - Marnie Pohlmann

SETTING:

The kitchen.  By the sink dirty dishes are piled.

            

ENTER FROM STAGE LEFT:

Mary, a frazzled looking housewife and mom wearing a stained apron and slippers. She runs water, adds "SonLight Suds" and begins to wash the dishes.

Mary’s monologue:    

Lord, it is not fair! 

They all live here, too.  It's not like I sit around all day just waiting to clean up after them.  I took those courses at the college and work every afternoon at the daycare to help with the finances.   I carpool Jimmy and his friends to hockey practice.  And I'm the secretary of the PTA.  I'm even a Pioneer Club leader.  And I try to bake and sew.  I even help Joe untangle his fishing tackle so he can get away and relax.  But what about me? Probably when I'm old and decrepit I'll still be the slave.

I don't feel like anything I do matters, Lord.  It all just gets undone again. 

I make the beds so they can be slept in.

I wash and mend the clothes so they can be worn - and worn out. 

I vacuum the carpet so everyone can track in new dirt.

I cook meals so five minutes later they can complain about being hungry.

And I wash dishes so they can be dirtied again. 

Oh, Lord, do I HAVE to do dishes?

Well, ok.  If I hurry I might have time to read the Bible and You’ll make me feel better.

Oh, look, God.  This old plate again.  It's always SO dirty, but it has always been one of my favourites.  At least it is getting easier to clean.  It isn't as stained as it used to be.  Must have something to do with that new soap I'm using - SONLIGHT SUDS.  And look, you can hardly see where it had broken, and we glued it back together.  I'll let it soak while I do the other dishes.

God, that old plate is kind of like me, isn't it?  I used to be a real mess - I guess sometimes I still am.

I was shattered and stained with anger and pain.  But You glued me back together.  I was such a wreck. I sure did not act or look very lovable.  But You loved me anyway.

You wash me with the blood of your own Son, Jesus Christ.  You bring out a shine in me that I didn't know was possible.  When I look at my life now, I see the reflection of Your protection and love. You've washed away the stain of anger.  The pain is still there, sometimes.  But it sure fades fast when I look to You for comfort.  Because You understand.

Lord, You know that I really do love my family.  And I know that they really do love me.  Help me remember that no matter what I'm doing, if I do it WITH You, and to glorify You, it doesn't matter WHAT it is I am doing.  Even if it's the dishes.

Here's that plate, Lord.  Doesn't it look beautiful?  It's amazing the change a little time in SONLIGHT makes in dishes - and in me. God, you are so GOOD to me!  My heart and my attitude are much softer, now - not to mention my hands!

I’ll leave those clean dishes there to dry. You take care of that, too. Thanks for helping with the dishes.  We’ll do it again tomorrow.

MARY EXITS STAGE LEFT.

There is a certain beauty in broken pieces. Sometimes they can be glued together to make the original useful again, and sometimes they are matched with other broken pieces to create stained glass beauty.

As we try to write in our cracks of time between the rest of life, God is at work creating in us the clean heart He desires that we give to Him. This is not always done with a pen in our hands. He writes His love in us even while we do the dishes.

Truly, if it were not for the cracks in my life, I would probably have nothing to write about in those small cracks of time! 

Sometimes those cracks of time when I should or could be writing, seem like deep dark chasms of time, not just stolen moments. And I am not well-disciplined at being productive in even those longer times. In hindsight, I realize I can be writing so much more. In time, in God’s time, He will mend those huge cracks in my life so they are beautiful - picture the Grand Canyon! 

As we spend time in the sunlight this summer - and in the Son’s light - may we each find cracks of time to write and to see God’s beauty mending our own unique brokenness.

Photos courtesy of CCO license, Pixabay.com

Marnie Pohlmann is grateful for both cracks of time and cracks in her life - one provides an opportunity to write, and the other provides topics to write about. There is beauty in the cracks when God's light shines through.
Phosphorescent